The Summer Before Life Goes On
by beautifullife4now
Summary: High School is over. There is one thing standing in their way before their futures begin: Summer. Edward and Bella have 79 days to do whatever they want. Be whoever they want. And with virtually no rules, anything is possible. Will this be a summer to remember or a summer to forget?
1. Graduation

**It's time. I need write something new. I actually know where this story is going and it excites me so much. I've planned out my chapters and everything. Don't know how many chapters, but I know what I want accomplished before the story is over. So here we go. The chapters will switch back and forth from Bella POV to Edward POV. I'm shutting up now. **

* * *

**BPOV**

Summer, is the season of endless possibilities. Staying up til the sunrises, the parties, the vacations and most importantly the freedom. Everything about summer made me excited. It was the one time of year where we didn't have to worry about homework and teachers and school. With all that out of the picture, I'd have time to do more of things that I loved. I'd have time for my friends and endless time with Edward. This was not the time to think about what the end of August would hold. This is our last summer to be whoever we want to be and I wanted to remember it all.

~oOo~

This was it, the final step before 2 and half months of freedom. It was graduation day. The day I've been waiting for, for 4 years. I was standing in front of the floor length mirror in my bedroom. There were pictures crammed in between the wooden frame and the mirror itself. As I looked at myself in my gold Forks High graduation gown, I looked at all the pictures surrounding my reflection. The one picture in particular that caught my eye was from freshman year.

The picture was taken on the night of our very first high school homecoming. You soon learn later, that attending every single one is not mandatory, but you do it anyways. In the picture was me, my best friend since 3rd grade Alice, her boyfriend Jasper, his sister Rosalie, her boyfriend Emmett and my boyfriend Edward. It was one of those cheesy backdrop pictures that you can take at a school dance, Alice made us all take one. We all look so young and like freshman. The boys were still on the scrawny side and we girls were still trying to fill out the chest area. Except if you were Rosalie and have had boobs since you were 13.

I look at this picture now and see six freshman having no idea what those 4 years are going to be like. Those 4 years were filled with break-ups, make-ups, fights, lots of drama, first kisses, first I love you's, first times, first high school parties and so much more. But, we all survived somehow and here we are. This was our last leg of high school before we became adults. There was a sudden knock on my bedroom door, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Bella, honey? Are you ready yet? We don't want to be late." It was my mom, Renee. She flew in just for my graduation, along with her husband Phil. I turned away from the memory mirror to look at my mom. She smiled at me, already looking like she was going to cry.

"How do I look?" I said, doing a little spin in my gown. My mom waddled over to me, she was 7 months pregnant with my soon to be half-brother/sister. She placed her hands on my shoulders and gave me a once over.

"You look beautiful, sweetheart." She sounded choked up. She smiled at me, before wrapping me in an awkward hug because of her stomach.

"Thanks mom. I love you." I said to her, pulling away.

"Love you too," she wiped away an escapee tear. "Come on, let's get downstairs." I followed her out of my room and downstairs into the living room.

"Renee, how do you work this damn thing?" That was Phil. He was technology challenged, more than Charlie. I didn't think that was possible.

"Oh, babe. It's this button right here." She left my side to go help her husband work the apparently complicated camera. Charlie came around the corner and stood by me.

"Hey, Bells. You ready for this?" He asked me, wrapping me in a one armed hug.

"I guess so. I can't believe it's finally happening." I couldn't be really excited about graduating around Charlie because parents got all sad over how their baby is finally growing up.

"Me either. I remember when you were just in diapers, telling me you made an oppsie."

"Dad, please save the embarrassing stories." I could tell my face was really red.

"Sorry, kid. But, time did fly so fast. I feel like I'm losing my little girl. After graduation, you've got summer and then NYC." Charlie said.

I wanted to be journalist for a very long time. So, I applied to a bunch of different schools and applied to NYU for the fun it and it was one of my dream schools. But, I knew there was no way in hell I'd get in. But, I did. I was so excited when I got my acceptance letter this past winter. I tried not to think about it now because I needed to focus on graduating and summer.

"You aren't going to lose me dad. Trust me." I said, fidgeting with the sleeve of my gown.

"Alright! Time to take a few pictures, then off to graduation!" Renee said, clapping her hands with enthusiasm. So, I posed with my dad. Then I posed with my mom. Then I posed with both of them. Then I took solo pictures with my hat on. I ended up taking a couple with Phil. And then it was time to leave. We all piled into Phil's giant SUV and drove to Forks High School for the last time.

~oOo~

We pulled into the parking lot and there were lots of yellow gowns everywhere. The ceremony was being held outside since today was one of the few nice days we've had in weeks. The sun was shining and it was surprisingly warm. I hoped out of the backseat and looked around. Suddenly, a pair of hands was covering my eyes, very manly hands.

"Guess who?" I could pick this voice out of any crowd.

"Johnny Depp?! You've finally come for me!" I said, hiding my giggle.

"Close. Oh, so very close." He uncovered my eyes and I turned around. Edward was standing behind me, with his heart stopping crocked smile. I looked around before giving him a quick kiss on the lips. Charlie hated it when he caught us kissing.

"Hey." I said breaking the kiss and wrapping my arms around him to rest my head on his chest.

"Hey." He said, kissing the top of my head.

"I should warn you, my very pregnant mother is here." I said, looking up at him. Ever since I told my mom that I had a boyfriend, she's been obsessed with meeting Edward. No such opportunity has arrived til now. I was scared to know what might happen.

"Should I hide or. . . " Edward pretended to hide behind me. I giggled at his attempt.

"Hiding would make it worse. I'm just warning you because she might ask you a lot of questions and want us to take a lot of pictures."

"Well, it's a good thing I look especially handsome today." I just rolled my eyes at him and went up for another kiss.

"PDA! Excuse me but, Mr. Cullen I'm going to have to ask you to meet me in my office. You too, Miss Swan." We broke away and looked in the direction of the voice. Emmett was walking over to us with Rosalie on his arm. Rose probably looked better in her gown than anyone else.

"What are you going to do? Tell me I can't go to graduation." Edward joked back.

"That's exactly right! Go home young man!" Emmett said mocking our principal, Mr. Greene.

"If Edward has to go home for PDA, then so should you Em." Rose said, smiling coyly.

"Whelp. I guess we have to miss graduation. Better luck next year! Come on, Eddie." Emmett started walking back the way he came.

"You're such a dork." Rose said, pulling back over.

"But, I'm your dork." He said, looking at Rose before kissing her on the cheek.

"PDA!" Edward and I both screamed, before laughing.

"Who's showing PDA?" Charlie said, walking around the side of the car.

"Hey Charlie! How's it shaking?" Emmett said, raising his hand for a high five. Charlie ignored him.

"It's Chief Swan, boy. And not bad. Hello Rosalie." Charlie said, walking over to Edward and I.

"Hey Chief Swan." Rose said, giving Emmett a pity high five.

"Hello Edward," Charlie greeted Edward. They shook hands like gentlemen. Charlie had slowly grown fond of Edward over the years. We'd been dating since 8th grade. "Did Bella tell you about Renee?"

"Yes, sir. Should I face her now or after?" Edward said, finding my hand next to his and intertwining our fingers.

"It's best to face it now. You don't want to give her more time to come up with her interrogating questions." Charlie said. Before Edward could answer, Renee came around the side of the car with Phil in tow.

"We'll see you guys over in the line-up!" Emmett said, before towing Rosalie away to the group of growing yellow gowns.

"Bella," Renee said with a huge smile on her face. "Is this him?"

"Mom, this is my boyfriend Edward. Edward, this is my mother Renee and her husband Phil." I introduced them, and my mom tried to give Edward hug. But, it was much like the one she gave me this morning.

"Edward, it is nice to finally meet you. Bella has told me so much about you! It's nice to put a face to a name." Renee said, looking him over with her mothering eyes.

"It's nice to meet you, too. I hope she told you nice things about me." Edward said, glancing sideways at me with a crocked smile. I felt my face flush.

"Oh it was great things, I assure you," Renee smiled even bigger, if that was even possible. "How old are you?" Edward looked a little confused by her question.

"Mom, I told you he's 3 months older than me." I said, trying to inconspicuously pull Edward to the safety of the line-up.

"You could have been lying to me. For all I know, he's like 23 and only pretending to be in high school."

"Mom, do you think Charlie would have let me live if that were the case?" I said, pulling on Edward a little more. He moved with me, wanting to escape just as bad.

"True. . . What do think about marriage?" Renee looked completely serious.

"Uhh. . . " The tops of Edward's ears were turning red. It was now or never.

"Oh, look they are lining everyone up. Better go!" I said, tugging on Edward's arm.

"We'll see you after, Bells." Charlie said, waving at us as we hurried off. Phil looked embarrassed.

"You are so lucky I got us out of there before she asked you to feel her stomach." I said, slowing down as we neared the rest of our class.

"What if I wanted too?" He teased.

"We can go back if you want." I said, halfway turning around. He stopped me and turned me back around looking kind of scared. "I thought so."

~oOo~

"Isabella Swan." Principal Greene said my name through the microphone. I marched up the stairs and across the stage. I was the last of my friends to get my diploma.

"Congratulations, Miss Swan." He said, as he handed me my diploma. The clapping got louder in the bleachers where my parents were sitting. I shook hands with my principal and walked off the stage back to my seat.

The rest of the names were called, Principal Greene gave a final speech, and we turned our tassels.

"Congratulations Class of 2013!" We all cheered and threw our caps into the air. I heard Emmett scream, "FUCKING FINALLY!" over everyone else. Yellow caps came raining down on everyone, hugs were being passed around. Friends were crying on each other's shoulders. Parents were walking down from the bleachers to come congratulate their graduate. It was just a sea of people and chaos.

"WE DID IT!" Alice sprang out of nowhere and wrapped me in a chokehold hug. I didn't really care though, I held onto her.

"WE ARE OUT OF HERE!" I screamed back. It was so freeing to know that I was done with high school.

"I feel so relieved. I don't have to worry about any more projects for AP Chem! I can do anything now!" Alice said, releasing me and spinning around almost smacking Rosalie in the process.

"ROSE! WE'VE GRADUATED!" Alice said, not even bothering to apologize for almost smacking Rose but instead wrapping her in a chokehold.

"Thank god! I'm tired of all the underclassman eyeballing me." Rose said, untangling herself from Alice and fixing her hair.

"You guys are coming over to Edward's tonight right?" I asked, looking around for our parents. They were bound to be huddled together somewhere.

"Wouldn't miss it! It'll be better than Lauren's party anyway. I'd rather not listen to her gossip about how much better she like looked than everyone else." Rose imitated Lauren perfectly.

"Alice?" I said, spotting my dad and waving him over. The sea of people had cleared a little bit.

"Jasper and I will be there," Alice paused and looked around. "Where is he, by the way?"

"He went to find Emmett and Edward," Rose remarked, before we spotted them heading our way. "Here he comes." And so were Charlie, and the rest of the parent brigade.

"Get ready for the photo-shoot of your lives." I whispered to Rose and Alice, as the guys joined us. And then we were wrapped in hugs from our parents and words of congratulations were passed around. We posed for what seemed like hours of pictures. And then, we were free to leave. I ended up riding with Edward and his parents back to his house.

"Make sure you're home by midnight. Okay, Bells?" Charlie said through the car window.

"Don't worry Charlie. I'll make sure she gets home on time." Carlisle, Edward's dad, said from the driver's seat. Charlie nodded before walking back to Phil's SUV. I waved to my mom before we pulled out of the parking space and drove off.

~oOo~

Edward's house was about 15 minutes out of the city limits of Forks. You had to be on the lookout for their hidden driveway, or you'd drive right past it. Hidden in the woods was their giant three-story white colonial house. I'd been coming here forever, but it was still as beautiful as ever. The circular driveway was empty now, but in a few hours it'd be packed with cars for the graduation party. It was kind of funny because it was like battle of the graduation parties, Cullen vs. Mallory.

Edward and I got of the car and headed inside. When you walked in you could see almost the entire bottom floor. There was a staircase in the giant entry way and the entire back wall of the bottom floor was glass. You could see out into the backyard where the pool and the pool house were. These were the luxuries of being the top surgeon in Washington State.

"Do you guys want anything to eat or drink?" Edward's loving mother Esme asked as she stepped inside. She was where Edward got the green eyes and bronze hair color. But he was a foot taller than her and he got that from his father. She was the peace keeper in the family. When Edward got into a fight with his dad, which wasn't very often, she'd show up in his room with a sundae.

"That'd be great mom, thanks." Edward said, kissing her on the head before she walked towards the kitchen. Edward began taking off his graduation gown.

"What time are your friends coming over?" Carlisle asked, shutting the front and taking his shoes off.

"Emmett is coming over around 6 with Rose," Edward pulled his robe over his head to reveal a white dress shirt and black dress pants. "And Jasper and Alice will be here at 7 because her parents are taking them out to dinner. And the party starts at 8, so people should start showing up at 9." Edward chuckled. It was true. Nobody ever showed up on time. You never wanted to be the first one at a party.

"Your mother and I will be out in the pool house by 7 then," Carlisle plopped himself down on the couch. "Just make sure no one goes out there."

"Got it, dad." Edward said, grabbing my hand and leading me to the stairs. We were halfway up the stairs when we heard Carlisle shout out, "Behave!" Edward walked even faster up the stairs. I broke out into fits of giggles.

We made it up to the third floor and walked down to the door at the end of the hall, Edward's room. Edward opened the door and threw his robe on his unmade bed. His room wasn't a complete disaster, but it was a mess. There were clothes scattered on the floor, books piled by the really full bookshelf and CDs piled near his desk.

"Are you going to wear that ugly robe forever?" Edward joked from his position on his bed; he was lying with his back propped up by pillows.

"I've grown quite fond of it. I think I might wear it every day." I said, walking over to his bed. I kicked off my silver high-heeled sandals and climbed onto the bed. I threw my leg over one side and straddled him. I began to unzip my gown and once I pulled it down as far as it would go, Edward pulled it over my body and it landed on the floor in a pool of yellow. The gown revealed the only nice party dress I owned, if you didn't count my homecoming and Prom dresses.

"You look. . ." Edward said, staring at me. I was wearing a dark blue lacey dress. "Beautiful."

"You think so?" I said, reaching my hands up to play with the hair on his neck.

"Always." He breathed before reaching his hand up to brush my hair behind my ear. I leaned down and met my lips with his.

He moved his hand to the back of my head to deepen the kiss. I gripped my hands into his bronze hair, keeping his lips attached to mine. He tasted of crest and Edward. His tongue touched my bottom lip, and I opened my lips wider. I will admit that this was one thing I loved about Edward, he had amazing kissing skills. He used his arms as leverage and pushed himself up so we were kind of sitting up. He moved the hand from my neck down to my lower back. My hands tightened his hair, our kissing got more intense. And right where we always got cut off, a knock came at the door. It was Esme.

"Just a second," Edward kissed me once more before I moved off his lap and sat on the bed. He got up and tried to fix his hair. It was an attempted effort. "Come in."

"I've got some chocolate chip cookies for you guys. Freshly baked." She said, placing them on Edward's night stand, the one uncluttered place.

"Thanks, Esme." I smiled at her casually. But, it was obvious she knew what we were just doing.

"The food from the caterer should arrive just in time for your party, they just called." Esme said, giving Edward a sly smile. "Well, I'll let you two get back to it. You look really beautiful, by the way Bella."

Edward said, "Thanks, mom" right as I said "Thank you."

"Oh and Bella?"

"Yes?"

"Maybe tell Edward to clean his room up. He might listen to you." Before she shut the door behind her. Edward let out a sigh of relief once she was gone. I let out a nervous giggle.

"She totally knew. Did you see that smile she just gave me?!" Edward grabbed a cookie off the plate. I rolled off the side of the bed and walked around to get a cookie for myself. They looked delicious.

"We were left alone. Of course she knew." I laughed, taking a bite of my cookie. Esme's cookies were the best in the entire world. "Your mom isn't that oblivious, Edward."

"Hrm." He shoved the rest of his cookie into his mouth before walking into his bathroom and shutting the door.

I took little bites of my cookie as I walked over his overcrowded desk. There were crumpled up papers and CDs sitting on it. The pile that caught my eye, though, was the stack of opened envelopes addressed to him. They were all from colleges and universities. One in particular was addressed to him from Julliard. It was one of the big envelopes. I pulled out the letter that was inside and read it.

"Dear Edward Cullen, we are very happy to inform you that you have been accepted to the Julliard School for Performing Arts. In this envelope you will find the following information. . . . . . We look forward to hopefully seeing you for the fall semester."

I looked at the closed bathroom door. He'd gotten accepted to Julliard for his piano playing. Why hadn't he told me yet? I put the letter back in the envelope and looked at the post mark date. It was mailed out in February. He got this 4 months ago. I set the envelope back down on the desk. Maybe he didn't tell me because he wasn't going to accept their offer. He'd be an idiot not to though. This was fucking Julliard, only idiots say no. I looked at the other envelopes from other colleges and universities; Washington State, U of W, Bellevue College, Seattle University. He could get into any of these places no problem, but Julliard. That was huge.

I heard the bathroom door open behind me; I turned around and saw Edward walk out. I wanted to ask him about those college letters, but tonight was not the right time to do so. I'd wait until the right moment, whenever that was.

~oOo~

It was a little bit before nine and we were hanging out on the first level of the house waiting for the party to start. Carlisle and Esme left to pool house almost 2 hours ago. Edward, Jasper and Emmett were in the living room shooting things on the Xbox. Rose, Alice and I were in the kitchen, pointing out to the caterer truck unloaders where to put the food.

"Julliard? Wow." Alice said from beside me. She was in a simple purple strapless sundress, while Rose was wearing a red formfitting party dress. She wanted to show off her curves.

"I know right. Uh, you can put that by the pizza tower," I said to Alice and a caterer. "I want to know why he hasn't told me. If you got into the most prestigious performing art school in the world, you'd tell your girlfriend right?"

"Maybe he doesn't want to go. What were the other places he applied to?" Rose asked, looking into the living room at the sound of an explosion and someone cursing, Emmett. Rose just shook her head.

"Washington State, U of W, basically any college that allows anybody in as long as they have a brain." I answered.

"Yeah, he's an idiot." Rose picked up a chip and dropped it in her mouth.

"He could be embarrassed," Alice chimed in. I looked at her quizzically. "Some guys find getting into a performing arts school embarrassing. Not that many guys want to go to school to play music."

I sighed, frustrated. "We've been dating for almost 5 years. You think he'd learn to not be embarrassed around me."

"Maybe he's not embarrassed to tell you." Alice said, sticking her hand in the chip bowl that Rose was eating out of.

"What do you mean? That's he's embarrassed that someone might make fun of him?" I asked, really not knowing who'd do such a thing.

"Maybe not someone, but someones." Rose said, gesturing with her head to the living room. I looked over and saw the guys all laughing with each other. And it hit me. He wasn't embarrassed about me finding me out; he was embarrassed about his friends finding out.

"He really thinks his best friends since elementary school would make fun of him?" I asked.

"Emmett is going to the University of Arizona to play football," Rose said.

"And Jasper is joining the army," Alice said. "You can see why he'd think that."

"I guess so. I just wish he'd tell me." I said, pointing to the last few cater guys where to put the trays of deserts. They set them down, laid down a receipt and left through the front door.

"He will, don't worry. And if not, just bring it up. He won't be mad. He loves you." Rose said, before walking off with the chip bowl to the living room.

"Come on; let's go watch some guys blow each other up." Alice hopped off her stool, offering me her hand. I smiled and took it.

~oOo~

It was almost ten when the bottom level of the house started to get really full. I was surprised by how many people actually showed up. Apparently, Lauren's party was a total flop. She ran out of food and the music sucked. So, we were getting her party goers as well. Since Edward's parents were so trusting of him, they allowed alcohol, but there was a bring your own alcohol policy. So, if you didn't bring it, you couldn't have any. And that was also something Lauren's party lacked. Guess some of us will only be popular inside high school.

I was making my rounds, saying hi to a few people I knew but not really well. I was surprised to see Jessica Stanley here and not at her BFF Lauren's house. She said that she loved her best friend, but her party was a disaster. I also ran into my Calculus friend, Angela Weber. It was shocking to see her with a red cup in her hand. She was so quiet in school. But outside of school, she was loud and social. I was kind of sad that I never got to really know her.

Then I ran into Mike Newton, my unofficial stalker and Jessica's on and off again boyfriend. They were currently off because Jessica was caught kissing a wrestler while they were dating. I could tell he was drunk because he was trying to cop a feel. Thankfully, I got saved by Emmett who walked me away from him.

"Thanks, Em. You're a lifesaver." I said, downing the last of my drink. I never really drank, but it was a graduation party and someone brought 2 kegs, so I said to hell with it.

"No problem, Izzy." He said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. We walked into the kitchen and stopped to fill my cup at the keg.

"Do you know where Edward is?" I asked, tapping of my cup.

"Yeah, or I did. Before I rescued you from Smelly Newton, I saw him in the dining room talking to Eric Yorkie." He grabbed a slice of pizza and stuffed it into his mouth. Esme ordered so much food, the table wasn't even half empty yet.

"Thanks." I said, taking a sip before walking off toward the dining room.

I walked into the dining room, and I found Edward; playing beer pong with Eric.

"Hey, Bella." Edward said not looking away from the cups in front of Eric. He tossed the ball and it went into the one in left hand corner. Edward raised his hands in victory as Eric picked the cup up and chugged. He threw it on the ground and picked the ball up.

"Hey," I walked over and stood next to him. It looked to me that Edward was winning by two cups. "Having fun?"

"Yeah, except Yorkie keeps cheating!" Edward yelled over the music so Eric would hear him.

"Am not, Cullen! You're the one who keeps putting your elbows over the table." Eric said, making it a point to keep his elbows behind the edge of the table. He tossed the ball and it bounced off the rim of the middle cup and landed in the one next to it.

"Damn it." Edward picked the ball out and chugged the alcohol. He crushed the cup and dropped it on the floor.

"Could I try?" I asked him, taking a sip from my red cup.

"Sure, why not. I'm subbing in Yorkie!" Edward called, trading the ball for my cup.

"Letting a girl play for you huh Cullen? Prepare to lose!" He called back.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that Yorkie." Edward winked at me, before waving his hand over the table. I made sure my elbows were behind the edge before aiming the ping pong ball. I gave it a light toss and it flew into the cup at the front.

"What was that about losing?" I crossed my arms, raising a brow. Eric narrowed his eyes before taking the cup. I high fived Edward.

After I helped Edward defeat Eric at beer pong, I left the room to go look for Alice or Rose. I had lost them when people started arriving. I couldn't find either of them on the main level so I tried upstairs. The only floor off limits was the third floor. I eventually found Alice sitting in a vacant bedroom.

"What are you doing by yourself?" I asked.

"Oh, I just needed to get away from the party. You know how I get my claustrophobic moments." Alice said, turning to me. I joined her on the edge of the bed, offering a sip from my 4th cup. She drank the rest of it. "It's crazy down there."

"Yeah. It's nice to see a familiar face. I didn't realize I didn't know half the kids in our class."

"Same here! Jasper is down there talking to a bunch of kids I've never seen before. I told him I had to use the bathroom, but I ended up here. It's kind of quiet." Alice let out a puff of air.

The door busted open at the moment and an excited Rosalie was in the doorway. "There you guys are! Oh my god! You are missing it!"

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Lauren showed her ugly-ass face and shit is going down! Come on!" Rose said, frantically waving her hand for us to follow her. Alice and I hoped up and followed Rose quickly down the stairs.

"YOU BITCH!" Lauren shouted. We were half way down the stairs when I saw what was happening. Lauren was in the entry way, yelling at Jessica.

"What happened?" Alice whispered to Rose.

"Jess was making-out with Tyler when Lauren walked in. That slut." Rose whispered back. We stopped in the middle of the staircase.

"I can't fucking believe you! Making out with MY BOYFRIEND! I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY BEST FRIEND!" Lauren was yelling extremely loud.

"Mybe if ur party wasn't soooo fucking lme, he would of bean at ur house instead of hera wuth meh!" Jessica was drunk. Like, super drunk. Lauren looked like she was about to kill Jessica.

"And you," Lauren pointed her finger at Tyler. "What the fuck do you think you're doing making out with this slut?! You're MY DAMN BOYFRIEND, FOR FUCKING SAKES!"

"He doosn't wernt yoouuu," Jess almost fell over. "anymure."

That made Lauren snap, she charged at Jessica knocking her to the ground. Jessica screamed bloody murder.

"Bitch fight!" Rose exclaimed. She was way too into this. Lauren was punching Jessica in the face, while Jessica was trying to cover her face with her drunken arms. I saw out of the corner of my eye Emmett rush in and tear Lauren off of Jessica. Her arms were flaying.

"LET ME GO! RIGHT FUCKING NOW! I WANT TO KILL HER!" Lauren screamed at Emmett.

"No can do," Emmett said. I didn't realize the music had been shut off and the lights come completely back on. "PARTY IS OVER! Time for everyone to go home!"

There were groans and boos, mostly towards Lauren and Jessica. People started shuffling towards the door. Rose, Alice and I walked the rest of the way down the stairs.

"Way to ruin the party, Lauren." Rose sneered.

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Hey, that's my girlfriend! Watch it or I'll throw you in the pool." Emmett threatened. Tyler was helping Jessica off the ground. She was holding her nose cause it gushing blood. Tyler helped Jessica's drunken self out of the house.

"Okay, I can let you go now." Emmett said before dropping Lauren on the ground and walking away.

"Ass." Lauren said, getting up and brushing herself off.

"Stick to ruining your own parties," Rose commented, smirking. Lauren flipped her off before heading for the door. "Oh, love you too! Let's stay in touch!" The door slammed behind her. "What a bitch."

"I wonder why she even came here in the first place. So she could hang out with her friends that obviously could care less about her." I remarked, leaning down to pick up cups off the ground.

"She was missing the attention, so she figured why not come to a party where she could get some." Alice said following my lead, picking up napkins and paper plates.

"That is going to be one ugly Facebook fight later," Rose said. "Glad I haven't unfriended them yet! It'll be the last ounce of high school drama I'll ever see." Alice and I chuckled.

~oOo~

It was past midnight when the downstairs was finally cleaned. I had missed my curfew, but I was pretty sure Charlie was fast asleep. Or I had hoped.

"I am so tired." Alice said, leaning her head on Jasper's shoulder.

"I am going home and not getting up til after noon." Emmett agreed, hauling the last garbage bag out to the garage.

We were all hanging out on Edward's porch. Alice and Jasper were sitting on the steps, I had my arms crossed on the railing, Rose was next to me and we were watching Edward and Emmett haul the trash out.

"You know Jasper," Edward called. "Since you're joining the army and all, you should be doing this and building muscle."

"No! He's my pillow." Alice said, clutching Jasper's arm.

"Sorry, buddy." Jasper grinned.

"We should really head home, Jazz. If we have to drop Alice off, I don't want to get her in trouble." Rose said, pulling the car keys out of her purse and tossing them to Jasper, who caught them.

"I guess," Jasper said standing up with a sleepy Alice reluctantly following. "See you later, guys."

"Bye Jazz, Alice," I waved at them, as they headed towards Jasper's black truck. "Bye Rose."

"Bye Bella. See you later." She hugged me before going to say good-bye to her boyfriend. Emmett wrapped her up in a bear hug and kissed her. I smiled at their exchange. He came up onto the porch.

"Well, I'm heading home too. Night Izzy!" Emmett swung me around in a hug.

"Night Em. See you later!" He walked down the porch, high-fiving Edward on the way down the steps.

"Time to get you home." Edward said, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"Do I have to?" I whined, leaning my head onto his chest looking up at him.

"I wouldn't mind if you stayed," he said, bending down and kissing my forehead. "But, I'm afraid your dad might think I kidnapped you. And he actually likes me now."

"I wouldn't want you to be convicted of kidnapping," I said spinning around to face him. "I guess you can take me home."

"What time is it?" He asked me suddenly. I raised my eyebrow confused before pulling my phone out of my bag.

"12:45. It's already way past my curfew." I said.

"A few more minutes won't hurt than." He said before leaning down to kiss me. I gripped onto his shirt, pulling him closer. He pushed me back against the railing and moved his lips off mine down to my neck.

"I love you." I breathed to him, running my fingers through the hair on his neck.

He looked me in the eyes with his emerald eyes. "I love you, too." He kissed me one more time before pulling away. "Come on, I don't want you to get into any more trouble than you already are." I nodded in agreement. He pulled his car keys out of his pocket with hand and held my hand with the other as we walked to his silver Volvo.

~oOo~

Edward pulled up to my house at exactly 1:10am. I was an hour and 10 minutes. I was praying that Charlie was sleeping and didn't check to see if I got home. My mom and Phil were staying in the guest room, so I hoped neither of them was up either.

"Good night, Bella." Edward said, running his hand along my cheek. I leaned into his touch.

"Good night." I unbuckled my seatbelt before getting out of the car. I shut the door as quietly as I could. I walked up to the front door and unlocked it using the key that was hidden under the dead plant. When I walked into the living room, I saw someone sitting in Charlie's recliner. Busted.

"Do you know what time it is?" Renee asked. I slowly walked around to face her. She was smiling and I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding.

"I know. I'm really, really late. I'm sorry." I said, sitting down on the love seat.

"Oh, I don't care. You're just lucky I'm not Charlie," Renee turned on the lamp so we could see each other better. "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah. It was awesome! It broke up early because two girls decided to get physical." I explained, leaning back.

"High school drama still?" She guessed. I just nodded my head.

"The one girl was extremely drunk and made out with the others boyfriend, who seemed to be completely sober. The other girl came to the party and that was the first thing she saw."

"Some girls just never grow up. All they have is high school and once they leave there they got nothing. Every class has a few people like that."

"Hmm," I closed my eyes for a second, my tiredness finally hitting me. "Why are you still up, by the way?"

"Oh, the baby was really kicking and I couldn't lay still. He/she has stopped now." She said rubbing her stomach. My mom was such an adorable pregnant lady. But, also a scary one.

"Well, I'm going to go to bed. I'll see you in the morning." I said, standing up. I went over and helped my mom out of the recliner.

"Alright. And hey, do you think Edward would like to go to lunch with us tomorrow? I'd like to talk to him some more before I leave on Sunday." Renee said, clutching me as I helped her up the stairs.

"Maybe. I'll text him and ask him." He was going to go whether he wanted to or not.

"Sweet. Alright, night sweetie." She waddled off to the guest bedroom.

I walked into my bedroom, unzipping my dress and dropping it on the floor. I changed into a pair of cotton shorts and a t-shirt. Not bothering with anything else, I climbed into my bed and plugged my phone in.

Me: Hey. I know you're probably sleeping right now, but you're coming to lunch with my family tomorrow on Renee's request. Sorry!

A few minutes went by before my notification ring went off.

Edward: Your mom scares me so I wouldn't even want to say no.

Me: Hahaha! Oh, and when you come by tomorrow can you bring me my grad gown?

Edward: Why do you want that ugly thing?

Me: Memories. Renee or Charlie might want to keep it. And I told you, I want wear it every day!

Edward: Yeah. I'll bring it. Did I tell you that you were only one that could pull it off? ;)

Me: Oh, shut up :P I'm going to sleep now. See you at 11!

Edward: Good night. Love you!

Me: Love you!

As soon as I set my phone on my night stand, sleep eventually took over.


	2. The Start of Summer Fun

**EPOV**

I rolled over in my bed, the bright light straining against my closed eyelids. I had almost forgotten what it was like to wake up on your own and not by an annoying ass alarm clock. I opened my eyes to stare at the bright red numbers on my clock. It was just past one in the afternoon. I felt like I could sleep longer.

It's been 3 days since I graduated high school. I've never felt freer in my life. I was done with getting up at 5am, done with tests, done with it all. Tonight, we were all going over to Emmett's house to have a bonfire. We were going to burn all of our school stuff. I couldn't be happier to get rid of all my notebooks filled with Calculus equations and old papers on Romeo and Juliet.

I got up out of my bed, threw some pants on and made my way into the kitchen. It was nice and quiet because my parents were off at work. Carlisle was down at the hospital and Esme was over at her interior design studio. I walked into the kitchen to find a plate of chocolate chip muffins on the granite counter top. I grabbed one off the plate and took a huge bite.

"Thanks mom," I whispered to myself enjoying the sweet taste of the muffin. I walked over to the list stuck to the fridge and wrote down 'Chocolate Chip Muffins' in my messy writing to the bottom.

The list was for a road trip I was planning with Bella and everyone. The trip was a tribute to the end of our high school careers. After weeks of negotiating with the parents, they finally agreed to let us go. But, it had to be somewhere in the country, which shot Alice's idea down real fast. The girls all wanted to just drive to LA but, after some convincing, we guys got them to agree to going to Orlando. They got all excited when Disney World was mentioned. We were leaving tomorrow morning. And by morning I mean 3am before the sun's up morning. We were all just staying at Emmett's house tonight. Despite the early morning wake up call, we were all excited.

I finished off my muffin and went to take a shower. Bella was coming to pick me up so we could pick up a few last minute things. The day after graduation, her mom, Renee, got to know me really well. Like, she was crossing the line to too much information zone. Bella had warned me about it when she picked me up that morning. I thought she was joking, and I was wrong.

"What do you want to study in college?" "Bella told me you used to play baseball, what happened?" "What do your parents do?" "Are they loaded?" "Do you wear boxers or briefs? You look like a boxer kind of guy but I could be wrong." "Have you always lived here?" "Why did you decide to date my daughter? Because if I were you, I'd have been scared shitless, excuse the expression, because Charlie is a cop." "Do you plan on getting married?" "How many kids?" "Do you know what it's like to have kids?" "Do you know how much of a responsibility it is?" "Are you being careful-"

"MOM!" Bella still feels bad about the interrogation.

As I was getting dressed, I heard the distinct sound of truck pulling up in front of the house. I quickly pulled my t-shirt on, grabbed my wallet and Raybans, and skipped down the stairs two at a time. I ripped the list off the fridge and I jogged outside into the muggy June air. Bella's rusted orange Chevy was idling in the driveway and making a terrible noise.

"Hey," She smiled at me as I walked over to the passenger side. Both the windows of her truck were rolled all the way down, or as far as they would go. The air-conditioner in her truck barely spewed out cold air these days. I grinned at her and yanked the door to the ancient Chevy open.

"You know the sound coming out of your truck isn't healthy right?" I teased, slamming the door closed with extra force. She just shrugged and drove down the drive toward the street. I think she might have rolled her eyes behind her red sunglasses. Her brown hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail with some pieces framing her face. She had on a gray tank top with a purple and blue plaid shirt and denim cutoff shorts with her much worn in pair of converse.

"My truck is only making that noise because I had to drive all the way out here to get you," She teased back, sticking her tongue out.

"You know, I could have come and gotten you. Since, my car isn't prehistoric."

"Don't hate the truck. It could crush your shiny Volvo."

"In its dreams! That is, if cars could dream. I'm just glad we don't have to drive this rust bucket to Orlando tomorrow."

"That would be a death sentence for my truck. And the fact that all six of us couldn't fit in this tiny cab anyway." Bella said, turning onto the street heading towards Port Angeles. The truck made an even worse noise when Bella tried to get it to hit the speed limit of 55. I hope we made it to Port Angeles alive.

~oOo~

"You excited for the bonfire tonight?" I asked Bella, tossing another box of Cheez-Its into the cart, crossing it off the list.

"Yes! I'm ready for it all to burn," I chuckled at her tone of voice because she sounded like an evil mastermind. "Since some of the textbooks are being discontinued, I got to keep some of mine. I want to watch all my pain and suffering burn."

"Those textbooks caused you pain and suffering?" I raised my eyebrow at her, amused. She was standing on the front edge of the cart facing me, as I pushed it through the aisles.

"They caused me emotional stress every night. Time for them to meet their doom and suffer!" I rolled my eyes at the sinister look in her eyes. I turned the cart down the drink aisle and she hoped off to help load up.

"How much do you think we need?" She asked, putting a case of water under the cart.

"I think, only one case of water. Probably, 3 things of pop." I pushed the heavy cart, down towards the extravagant pop selection. I picked up a case of Coke, Bella picked up a Diet Coke and we both ended up deciding on orange Fanta.

"And that is everything," I said, crossing off the words pop and water. "Time to check out."

We wheeled the now fully packed cart to one of the check-out lanes; they were all really long so it didn't matter. While we waited in line, Bella was flipping through one of the many gossip magazines. I didn't get why girls liked them so much. Who gave a shit if another Kardashian was pregnant? One of them is pregnant like every week. I had asked Bella once why she reads that garbage and she told me, "If I'm going to be a journalist, I need to know how to write all kinds of articles. If I end up writing for one of these trashy mags, which I hope I never have to, I need to know how to make my lies sound convincing." She was too good for those magazines. She belonged with writers for the New York Times.

"Ugh," I heard her say as she put the issue of Us Weekly back on the stand. "Such garbage." I chuckled to myself.

We finally made it up to the conveyor belt and began putting all of our food onto it. We had 10 bags of chips, 7 boxes of Cheez-Its, 4 different kinds of cookies, 2 things of Oreos, a few boxes of poptarts, some weird type of breakfast bar that Rose asked for, sandwich meat, 2 loaves of bread, the three things of pop and the case of water. Sadly, this isn't the weirdest combination of things I've bought before.

"Hello sir," the old lady said to me as I pushed the cart forward.

"Hi," I smiled warmly at her. Bella came around to help put the bags into the cart. Soon, our cart was full of white plastic grocery bags. When I bent down to put the case of water under the cart, I heard the cashier ring up something else. I stood up to see she had rung up a small bag of mini Resse cups. I looked over at Bella to see an innocent smile on her face.

"That'll be $140.50." The cashier said, I slid my credit card down the slot as Bella reached for the candy.

"Those weren't on the list." I commented, taking the receipt from the woman and smiling as I pushed the cart toward toward the exit.

"I added them at the last minute," She smiled opening the bag and popping one in her mouth.

"Are you going to share?" I asked, wheeling the cart across the parking lot to the truck. She tapped her chin, before reaching into the bag and offering me one. I opened my mouth, and she giggled before putting the Resse in my mouth. I smiled at her.

~oOo~

"You are the worst sandwich maker, ever. You are worse that Charlie!" Bella exclaimed, taking the knife from my hand. I didn't think making a sandwich was that complicated.

"What am I doing wrong!?" I asked looking down at the slice of bread I was spreading mustard onto.

"That is way too much. You want someone to die of mustard poisoning!?" She took the slice of bread and scraped a good amount of mustard into the trash. It looked like there was barely any on it now.

"No. But, I at least want them to taste it. Look at what you're doing!" I said, directing her attention to her own sandwich. "It looks like you're just spreading the scent of it onto the bread." Her eyes narrowed.

My mom, who was in the kitchen with us making more muffins, gave her little motherly scoff. It was the scoff she always gave when my dad said something stupid.

"Can I have my knife back, please?" I gave her my best pouty lip. "I promise not to abuse the mustard."

She slowly handed the knife back, eyes still narrowed. "Fine. But if you abuse putting the meat on, I'm sending you out of this kitchen." I took the knife from her hand, putting barely any mustard on it before spreading it on the other slice of bread. We finished up the sandwich making with light conversation after that. My mom helped us load the sandwiches and the other food into bags and coolers. Bella left a short time later to go get rid of her truck.

"You be safe on this trip, okay? If everyone is too tired to drive, you pull into a rest stop or hotel or something, okay?" Mom said as I was loading up my Volvo. Dad was loading the food into the truck, while I put my two suitcases and backpack for the bonfire in the backseat.

"We will mom. Don't worry too much." I said, shutting the door. She wrapped me up in a tight hug.

"It's only for a couple weeks. I'll be back before you have time to miss me." I reassured her, stepping out of the hug. She smiled before heading back towards the house.

"Everything is already paid for when you get to Orlando. Just tell them my name at the desk and they'll take care of the rest." Dad told me, patting my shoulder. He was not one for manly hugging.

"Thanks dad. I'll see you later." I said, putting my sunglasses on and heading for the drivers door.

I pulled up to Bella's house a few minutes later and then we drove off to Emmett's house for the bonfire.

~oOo~

"Who wants to go first?" Emmett asked. We were all sitting around this giant fire in his backyard. It was the only thing giving off any light.

"I will!" Jasper shot up from the ground, practically dumping Alice, who was on his lap, on the ground. He grabbed a few papers off the stack next to him. "This feels so good to say. Fuck you, Mrs. Birde!" He threw his stack of papers into the fire and we watched the flames rise up. We all yelled out cheers. Rose stood up next. She was sitting next to Emmett. She grabbed a few papers and a notebook.

"Pre –Calc can kiss my ass!" She threw her offerings into the flames. We all laughed as the flames danced into the sky.

"My turn," Bella said, rising from my lap. She grabbed her huge Government textbook. "I'd say I'm sorry but, I'm not. Burn baby, burn!" She heaved the book into the ball of fire. The fire hissed and the flames licked at the book. She curled back up in my lap.

"Me next! Me next!" Alice leaped into the air and just threw her AP Chem book into the fire. "That is what I call chemistry!"

"I'd like to say a few words about my old English homework," Emmett said, standing up and bowing his head. "Thou art a heartless bitch." And he threw it into the red and orange flames. I scooted Bella off my lap and stood up.

"I don't know if I can burn this," I said holding up my Spanish 5 notebook. "Hueles a queso púrpura."

"What did you just say?" Emmett asked.

"I don't know. How I ever got into Spanish 5 will remain a mystery." Everyone chuckled as I tossed the notebook into the fire.

We all had a free for all after that, tossing our remaining school stuff into the fire. Jasper finally got rid of his blue backpack that he's had since 5th grade. It was held together with duct tape and willpower. The flames turned a pretty blue color when he tossed it in.

"Can you believe it? We're done," Someone said a while later. We had all settled around the fire and it had been quiet up to this point. "Everything about high school is gone. It burned away with this fire." I'm pretty sure it was Alice. I didn't look around to check.

"Funny how we never thought it'd happened. It all seemed so far away." Bella said. She was lying on the ground, with her head in my lap. "The only thing we got left to conquer is the rest of our lives."

"The thing that amazes me," Rose said. "Is that even through all that, we still remained friends. I mean, there were some moments where I thought we weren't going to make it out intact."

"But we did. I could probably laugh at most of it now." Alice whispered. The flames in front of us were slowly dying out. It was becoming dimmer, but it was still bright enough to see everyone.

"Oh really?" Jasper said, joining the conversation. "How about that time during freshman year where you went through that phase where you only listened to Justin Bieber."

"Ew," Alice said before she chuckled embarrassed.

"I remember that!" Rose piped up to my left. "You had his posters all over your walls and you thought you were going to marry him."

"UGH!" Alice said, covering her ears.

"BABY, BABY, BABY OOOHHHH!" Emmett chortled; I could hear the smirk in his voice. Alice curled up into a ball next to Jasper.

"Okay guys, stop picking on Alice," I said. "Besides, I remember that time before Emm and Rose were going out officially-"

"Ed," Emm stopped laughing and glared at me.

"And Emm had this crazy crush on our 8th grade English teacher." I rushed through it. Emmett's stare was ice cold.

"You're dead meat Cullen." He threatened. Jasper busted out into a fit of laughter. He was soon followed by everyone else.

"I can just see it now," Jasper said through his laughter. "Little 8th grade Emmett McCarty making goo-goo eyes at his teacher and zoning out at how pretty she was."

"Shut it, Hale!" Emm yelled, and then he got that smirk on his face. "I remember sophomore year when Jasper and I had the same gym class. Oh, this is a great story. We were playing basketball and Jasper had the ball. I remember this so well. He was dribbling down the court, when this kid in our class tripped and grabbed onto Jazz's shorts. Pantsed him right in the middle of the court! It was the highlight of my week, bro." Everyone was chuckling, including Jasper.

"I got that kid back. Not only did I pants him, but I grabbed his boxers too. Double score!" Jasper fist bumped Emmett. "Oh, I got another good one. Hey Emm?"

"Yeah, Jazz?"

"Remember Tanya Denali?" Oh no.

"Yeah," Emm paused. "Oh, yeah." He looked over at me.

"All through high school, she was obsessed with Edward." Jasper laughed. "She refused to believe he was dating Bella." I could feel heat rising to cheeks.

"Yes! Remember when she asked Edward to homecoming and Bella was standing right there?" Emmett was laughing uncontrollably now. I remember that all too well. I felt bad for her because she was overly obsessed.

"Dude, that was the best!" Jasper and Emmett were having a ball. Alice and Rose didn't find it funny. Bella wasn't saying much either. If she wasn't tracing patterns into my hand, I would have thought she was sleeping.

"That girl needed serious help." Rose commented. "The only thing I remember about her was when she finally moved away at the beginning of last year."

"I wonder if she found someone else to obsess over." Alice mumbled.

"I hope that boy was in a healthy relationship like Edward because someone help him if we was single." Rose said.

"Anybody remember that time Rosalie tried to go punk?" Bella spoke up from the awkward silence. "She died her hair black and put pink and blue streaks in her hair."

"Ugh, Bella don't bring that up! I'm begging you." Rose said.

"Oh, but don't you remember when you wanted to get your nose pierced because all punk girls had a nose piercing?" Bella told her, smiling. She twisted herself to look at Rose.

"And that time she drew a fake tattoo of a, what was it Rose?" Alice jumped in.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Rose tried to play it off.

"Remember Alice, it was a skull with flames! And she tried to convince everyone it was real." Bella giggled. "Seriously, what were you thinking Rose?"

"I honestly can't tell you. I was probably rebelling against my parents. Gah! I made my parents burn those pictures of me. But, knowing them they only told me that. They probably kept them so they show me later on in life."

"Speaking of phases, Bella? I remember you going through a certain phase." Alice had a sly grin on her face.

"What was it, Alice?" I piped up, grinning down at Bella.

"When Bella was in 5th grade . . ."

"Don't say it Alice. Please, don't say it!" Bella begged, hiding her face in her hands.

"She had this crazy dream of becoming a popstar like Hannah Montana." There was dead silence, before laughter erupted all around.

"How come I've never heard about this?" I asked her, trying to mute my laughter.

"Because it's embarrassing," she said through her hands. "I used to come home, go up to my room and put on a blonde wig and pretend that I was a famous singer. It still makes me cringe. It was a secret and never supposed to be brought up." Bella uncovered her face to glare at Alice.

"Oh, there are no secrets among friends. Besides, nobody brought anything up about you yet." Alice said.

"Hey, Bella. Did you have a cool popstar name?" Emmett asked through chuckles. Rose punched him in the arm.

"Bella Alabama." Bella mumbled. New fits of laughter burst out. She hid her face behind her hands again. I stroked her hair, whilst containing my laughter.

"Alright. That's enough sharing for one night." Alice said. "I'm sorry, Bella." Bella lifted her hand and flipped Alice off. It got quiet after that. The fire had died out and it was pitch black. The noise that could be heard was the sound of the crickets.

"What time is it, does anyone know?" I asked.

"It's a little past eleven thirty," Emmett said. "We should probably go to sleep since we have to get up in a few hours."

"Why do we have to leave so early?" Rose complained. There was the sound of rustling clothes on the grass as we all stood up.

"Because it's a two day drive and with stops along the way it could take up to three. So, we have to leave early," Emm said. Suddenly there was a flash of light from his cellphone. "Alright everyone follow me and I shall guide you safely to the backdoor." We all stumbled along after him in the dark. Bella was half walking, half being pulled along by me. She was about to collapse.

We made it safely to the backdoor. Emm lead us into his living room and flipped a switch. Our eyes were suddenly flooded with light.

"My eyes! It burns!" Jasper said, rubbing his eyes trying to get them to adjust.

"Shut up you moron. My parents are sleeping!" Emmett whisper yelled. "This is the best I can do for sleeping conditions. I can get some pillows and blankets from the hall closet for the people that want to sleep on the floor." He marched off to the closet down the hall, while everyone else found a place to crash.

In the end, Alice curled up in the recliner, Jasper crashed on the couch opposite the recliner. Rosalie crashed on the loveseat with Emmett on the floor beneath her. Bella and I crashed on the floor in between everyone. Once Emmett turned off the light, I could feel Bella curl up on my chest and felt her breathing even out. I was out soon after that.

~oOo~

It seemed like I'd barely fallen asleep before Emm's cellphone went off.

"Shut that fucking thing up." Rosalie's voice was muffled.

"Good morning to you too, buttercup!" Emm said, turning the alarm off. There was a beat of silence before the room lite up with light.

"It's not morning if the sun ain't up yet." Rose said.

I blinked a few times before opening my eyes. Bella was sitting up next to me, rubbing her eyes.

"This is everyone's only chance to change into clean clothes and use the bathroom before we leave." Emm said. At that, the room suddenly came alive. Everyone was standing up and going to their bags to grab their change of clothes. While the bathroom was full, I pulled out the bag of muffins my mom baked yesterday and handed them out.

Once everyone was dressed, fed and empty we loaded everything into Emmett's parent's 7-seatter SUV.

"It is 4 in the morning, I am going back to sleep. Any of you try and wake me up, I'll kill you." Rosalie said, when she climbed into the car. She crawled all the way into the back.

Bella joined her back there and fell back asleep on Rose's shoulder. Jasper and Alice sat in the row in front of them, Alice looking like she might join Bella and Rose in dreamland any second. This was going to be a quiet car ride for a few hours. I rode shot gun because I was the next to drive after Emmett. We had a system where we were all going to switch off driving every 5 hours.

"Is everyone ready?" Emmett said to the back of the car.

"YEAH! ROAD TRIP!" Jasper yelled in a high pitched voice.

"Shut the hell up, Jazz or I'll break your nose." Rose said from the very back.

"That's the spirit." Emm chuckled before starting the car and pulling out of the driveway. Orlando, here we come.

* * *

**Hueles a queso púrpura = **You smell of purple cheese


	3. Road Trip

**BPOV**

We were ten hours into our road trip and surprisingly nobody has attempted to kill anyone, yet. It was a little past 2 in the afternoon and we just crossed the Montana state line. Edward was taking his turn at the wheel and was about to pass it on to Jasper. Plus if we didn't stop soon, my bladder was going to explode.

"Okay, I got a good one!" Emmett said from the seat behind me. "Alice?"

She turned around in her seat, "Yes?"

"Would you rather wake up naked and sore and without a memory of what happened the night before, with the Burger King man lying next to you saying 'You had it your way' ooorrr. . . Wake up next to Ronald McDonald telling you that 'You were loving it'?"

Alice's face scrunched up in contemplation. "Ronald. That Burger King guy is fucking creepy. Where did that question even come from?"

"The inner workings of my mind."

"Glad I can't read it because that question was disturbing," Alice chuckled. "Bella?"

"Hmmm," I said, turning my attention to her.

"Would you rather," Alice pursed her lips. "Be sexually attracted to fruit or whenever someone said your name, you had to make goat noises?"

"What kind of fruit would I be sexually attracted to?"

"All kinds. Especially bananas." There was a round of throat clearing from the guys trying to disguise the laughter.

"Uh. . . the fruit." I said.

"Why?"

"Because I'd rather not spend the rest of my life making goat noises. " I shrugged, ignoring the suggestive tone in her why.

"Bathroom break!" Edward said from the front seat as he pulled off the interstate and drove towards the nearest gas station. There was a collective sigh of relief as he pulled the SUV up to an open pump.

Everyone climbed out and stretched their appendages. Emmett opened the gas hatch to fill the car up. I followed Rose and Alice to tiny building to use the restroom.

"I wish we stopped at a rest stop. I hate gas station bathrooms." Rose complained, walking into the little convenience store. We made our way to the back and into the dirty small room.

"I look terrible," Rose commented, looking at her reflection in the mirror.

"Riding ten hours in a car will do that to you," I replied back stepping into one of the two stalls. I was with Rose on this one. I hate gas station bathrooms.

"Have you talked to Edward yet, Bella?" Alice asked a few moments later when we were washing our hands. I sighed.

"No. I was going to wait till after. I didn't want to ruin anything," I dried off my hands and tried to put my hair back into some sort of order. "Besides, it's not important right now. And I was going to wait till he brought it up."

"Bella," Alice said looking at me through my reflection. "You can't wait till he brings it up. Because you are going to have to lie about snooping on his desk and as your best friend I can tell you that you are the worst liar ever."

"I am not a bad liar!" I stammered, crossing my arms.

"Please," Rose said, joining us at the sinks. "You are a dead giveaway when you lie. You either twirl your hair on your middle finger; look to the left the whole time or you stutter, a lot."

"I do not." I said, crossing over to the door.

"Bella, we are not criticizing you." Alice said, coming up behind me and opening the door. "We're just telling you why you can't wait for him to bring it up."

"It's not my thing to bring up." I followed Alice out the door with Rose trailing behind. I dropped my voice to a whisper. "But, I'll ask him about it later. I promise."

"Good." Rose and Alice said matching my tone.

It's not like this college thing had been bugging me. I knew Edward would tell me when he was ready. Since Alice brought it up again, I began to worry again. What if he never brought it up and just forgot about it and went to a state school? I know he didn't just want to play piano forever, but this was an amazing opportunity. I shouldn't be worrying about this right now. I had other things to think about right now. I didn't want to ruin this part of my summer.

"Whose turn is it to drive?" I asked, stepping out of the store heading towards to vehicle.

"MINE!" Alice chirped, racing towards the driver's side.

"And here is the part where we all fear for our lives." Rose muttered under her breath following after Alice.

~oOo~

It was beginning to get dark and it was about time to stop and find a place to rest for the night. Alice was still at the wheel, driving well over the speed limit. It was amazing how she managed not to get a speeding ticket. And since she was the driver, she got to pick the station. And Alice was into the Top 40 and all the current popular music. The guys were dying to hear something different.

"If I have to hear about how I have no fucking idea how beautiful I am, one more fucking time I'm walking to Orlando." Emmett muttered.

"Alice, please turn the station." Edward begged from beside me. He was itching to pull out his iPod, but we made it a rule that no one could use their iPods because then the car just gets creepily quiet for the one driving.

"You guys are such babies! I am educating you on the music of today." Alice said turning up the Nicki Minaj song that just came on, we'd heard it about three times in the past 5 hours. A collective groan was sounded throughout the car.

"How much longer till we reach the hotel?" Edward whispered in my ear.

"I'd say another hour or so. Sorry." I giggled, humming along to the song as if I knew all the words.

"Let's play another game." Emmett suggested. We had finished a rousing game of punch buggy twenty minutes ago. Some of us are going to have bruises tomorrow.

"If it involves physical punches, I'm out." Jasper said. He'd been mostly quiet this entire trip so far. I had asked Edward why, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

"No physical harm shall come to you, I promise. Let's play Never Have I Ever." Emmett's eyes lit up with excitement. This only meant one thing, whenever it was his turn he was going to ask questions he knew everyone would get a strike for.

"Can I pass?" Rose asked grumpily.

"Nope," Emmett replied, not looking at the glare she was boring into him. "I'll go first. Never have I ever, had to wear girls' clothing." He looked really smug.

Rose and I raised our finger. I was thinking this was a dumb one till I saw Jasper slowly raise one of his fingers.

"Jazz?" I asked. He sighed before launching into his story.

"When I was 10, Rose told me that it was opposite day at school and that all the boys had to wear girl clothes. Being a little naïve ten year old, I believed her. So, I borrowed one of her dresses and put it on. I made it all the way to school, before I looked around and realized I was the only boy in a dress. Rose was just being the pain in the ass that she was."

"It was so funny! I'm so glad mom and dad were busy that morning and didn't realize they let you leave in a dress. I was so proud of myself." Rose commented, smiling at her twin. "My turn. Never have I ever, fantasized about making out with one of my teachers." Everyone raised a finger.

"Never have I ever, skinny dipped." Jasper said after that. Edward and I were the only ones to raise a finger.

"I don't want to know." Emm said. I could feel my face heating up with my blush.

A few questions later, and some of us were down to our last few fingers. Rose had 7, Jasper had 5, Edward had 8 and I had 8. Emmett had clocked out 2 questions ago, knowing him it wasn't hard to believe he had done just about everything. "Gotta live while you're young!" He had said when he raised his tenth finger.

"Alright. Never have I ever, thrown up on a perfect stranger." I said, glancing briefly at Rose before looking away.

"Fuck you," Rose said before raising her eighth finger. I smirked at her. When she was 13, she threw up on the ice cream vender in Port Angeles.

"Never have I ever, made out with my pillow thinking it was my crush." Rose smugly said, knowing she had gotten her revenge question.

"You pretended your pillow was Edward?" Alice asked, looking at me through the review mirror. She had been watching our game that way.

"Actually, this was when we were 8 and it was the sleepover you couldn't come to because you were sick. Remember, Bella had a crush on Mike Newton back then?" Rose said, all too happy to bring up this time in my life.

"You liked Mike Newton?" Edward asked puzzled.

"For the record," I started. "All the girls had a crush on him back then. But, I did. For a brief period of time, thank you for bringing it up Rosalie."

"Anytime!"

"Never have I ever," Edward cut in. "thought my friend's mom or dad was attractive." Rose and Jazz raised a finger each.

"Who?!" Emm asked.

"Esme." Jasper whispered, looking embarrassed.

"Dude," Edward said, shoving his shoulder. "Gross."

"Mr. Brandon!" Rose shouted confidently.

"And it's still a little creepy," Alice muttered.

When we pulled up to the hotel, Jasper ended up being the winner with only 7 fingers raised. I came in second with 9. Edward and Rosalie both went out on the same turn. We all climbed out of the car and lugged our suitcases into the lobby.

I crashed on the lobby sofa right next to Alice and Emmett. Edward was up at the front desk trying to get us rooms. He walked over with two room keys.

"I got us a suite with 3 bedrooms after some negotiating," Edward said. "Unfortunately, there is only one room in the suite with a queen sized bed so if you want it, you'll have to fight for-"

"I CALL IT!" Emm yelled. The woman at the front desk looked at him disapprovingly. Luckily, we were the only ones in the lobby. We made our way to the elevators and rode up to the 4th floor. We walked past many rooms till we got to our suite.

Once inside the small living room and kitchen area, we scouted out the bedrooms. Emmett and Rose ended up taking the only queen sized bed. So that meant 4 twin beds for Alice, Jasper, Edward and I.

It was around 5am, when Edward crawled into my bed to wake me up. We had to start driving again and it was my turn. Once everyone was fed and showered, we piled back into the SUV and began driving down the highway.

The pattern continued over the course of the next 48 hours. Drive, eat, switch drivers, drive, eat, sleep, drive. It wasn't until we hit the Florida state line, that we all felt the atmosphere in the car lift. We were all going stir crazy from spending almost 3 days in this huge but compact SUV. Emmett was at the wheel again and when we saw the sign for Disney World he blared the horn.

"FINALLY! WE MADE IT!" Emmett cheered over the horn. We all erupted into cheers with him.

"Guys! I have a confession," Alice started. "I've never actually been here before. Like ever."

"You deprived child!" Rose screeched.

"We are going to show you what you have been missing!" I chimed in, wrapping my arms around her small shoulders.

We drove down the stretch of highway looking for the Epcot exit. Once we turned off, we had to stop at a gate to pay our way in. The man working the booth, who had a pair of Mickey Mouse ears on, gave us a tag to hang from our mirror to let people know we were staying here. He told us to have a magical stay before we drove off.

"I think I will have a magical stay, just because of that old man." Emmett said, sliding the tag onto the mirror.

We drove down a short stretch of highway before turning and driving toward our hotel's parking lot. We were staying at the Contemporary Resort in the Bay Lake Tower. We pulled into the very packed parking lot, ending up in a spot farthest from the hotel. We all climbed out of the car and everyone stretched out their bent limbs.

"I thought we'd never get here. That was the longest 8 hours of my life." Rose said, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Really," Jasper said, helping the guys unload the trunk and the car. "I've had to pee for the last 5 hours."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Edward asked, dropping my suitcase by my feet.

"Because someone said we weren't making anymore stops till we got here." He side eyed Emmett.

"Dude, you could have peed in a bottle." Emm said, slamming the trunk shut. "I mean, that's what I did."

"Nasty!"

"Sick."

"Dude."

"You were driving, how did you manage that?" Jazz asked.

"Well, while everyone was taking a nap I took an empty bottle and unzipped my pants and-" Emm started before he got cut-off.

"Never mind." Jazz picked up his suitcase and Alice's and started heading towards the hotel.

"I didn't leak. I promise!"

"It's your car, man." Edward clapped him on the shoulder, before following after Jasper.

It took us 10 minutes to hike up to the hotel. Outside of it were what seemed like hundreds of green trees. When I got a closer look at them, the trees were actually thousands of bamboo stalks. It felt very exotic. The lobby was just as amazing as the outside of the building. The lobby had giant steel pillars and potted palm trees. The floor was a sleek marble.

"I'm going to go check-in." Edward said before heading off to the front desk. The rest of us kind of just wandered around the lobby.

"You can see part of the park from here." Alice was staring wide-eyed out one of the windows. Her little brain seemed to be taking everything in. I still couldn't believe that her parents never took her here. This was on every child's bucket list. Jazz walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. I smiled at the little moment they were having.

"Come on, guys. We are all the way on the 12th floor!" Edward called from one of the hallways. I broke my trance like gaze and ran to catch up to Edward. I snaked my arm through his and we walked together to the elevators. We all wouldn't fit in one elevator, so we'd have to take separate ones. Edward, Rose and I all got into one with half the luggage. Jasper, Alice and Emmett got in the other one.

"Beat you to the top!" Emmett called before his door closed. Ours closed soon after and then we were zooming to the 12th floor.

Our elevator ended up beating theirs because Emmett hit 11 instead of 12. We walked down the hallway to the 5th door from the elevators. There were pretty big spaces between the doors, so we must be in a huge suite. Edward put the key card in the door. Once the door swung open, it led into a fairly large space.

The first thing you saw when you walked in was the huge glass windows at the other end that looked out at the monorail and the theme park. It was a beautiful view. We walked further into the room and got closer look at what else was in the room. There was a small kitchen, with a dining table. There was a loveseat with a TV, it wouldn't fit all of us but who watches TV when they are at Disney World? There was a door next to the booth at the table that led to one of the bedrooms. In it, there was a King size bed and master bathroom. We'd all be fighting over this room.

"Umm, where is there a window like thing next to the tub?" Rose asked, pointing to the bathtub through the bedroom.

"I guess if you get lonely taking a bath, you can open up these door things and talk to the person in the bedroom." Alice said from in the bathroom. We all kind of looked at it with confusion, collectively shrugged and moved on.

Across the hall, there was the other bedroom which had two queen sized beds in it and its own bathroom. This one sans the weird sliding doors. Both bedrooms did have access to a terrace outside and TVs on the walls.

We all walked back into the living area and sat down. We all just sat in silence for a few minutes taking it all in.

"Alright, who is getting the king sized bed?" Jazz asked, knowing this had to be addressed.

"Well, Ed's dad did pay for all this. So, I say him and Bella should get it." Emm said. There was a collective group of head nods. That was easier than I thought it would be.

We all stood then and moved the luggage to the respective rooms. I set my bags down on the floor before falling back on the big bed with a huff.

"Tired?" Edward asked, copying me. I turned my head to look at him and smiled.

"I shouldn't be because I've done nothing all day, but I am. And I'm starving."

"Me too. Would you believe me if I said I really hate chips right now?" He said.

"Oh yes. I can't look at another potato chip for the rest of this trip." I laughed and then sat up leaning against the bed. Edward grabbed my hand and held it in his.

"I want to make this the best graduation present ever." He told me as I stared into his beautiful green eyes.

"Well good thing for you it already is," His crooked smile lit up his face. "I'm with you and my friends at the Happiest Place on Earth. I couldn't ask for more."

He sat up then and joined me. He brought his hand up and pulled my face towards his. When his lips touched mine, it ignited that feeling in me. It was that feeling of two becoming one. His lips moved with mine in sync ever so perfectly. I eventually threw myself into the kiss and my hands wound up around his neck holding him to me. A throat cleared behind him.

"If you are going to suck face, at least close the fucking door! A man could go blind," Emmett joked from the doorway. "Just wanted to let you two know that we ordered pizza; should be here in 15 minutes. You may continue." And he shut the door.

Edward and I both looked at each other; I could feel that my face was bright with color. We smiled sheepishly at each other, before getting up and joining everyone in the living space.

~oOo~

"One more bite, just one morrr- Nope. I can't." Jazz threw his half eaten 6th slice onto his plate.

Emmett had ordered 4 different pizzas for who knows what reason. But, we ended up eating everything but a couple slices. We were sprawled out over the kitchen/living room. Emmett ended up on the floor at some point. Alice and Jasper were sitting on the stools at the island in the kitchen. Rose, Edward and I were in the booth.

"Disney World makes the best fucking pizza." Emmett said, finishing off his 10th piece. He basically ate a whole pizza by himself.

"Damn straight." Rose said. Nobody talked after that. We were all in a pizza coma.

"What time is it?" Alice asked.

"Errr," Edward said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "10:30, we should probably call our parents and tell them we made it, like 3 hours ago."

"Don't want them thinking we got eaten by a wild animal or ended up going crazy and eating each other." Emm said, getting up off the floor. We all stirred after that. We threw plates in the garbage and put pizza boxes by the trash can.

"Do you want to call them, or should I?" Rose asked Jazz, walking into the one bedroom.

"Put it on speaker. They'll want to talk to us both anyway." Jazz said, shutting the door.

Alice went out into the hall, Emmett went into the bedroom after Jazz and Rose, and Edward went out to the terrace in our bedroom, while I stayed in the main room.

I found Charlie's number and dialed it. I curled up on the small leather chair and listened to the phone ring.

"Hello?" Charlie's voice rang through with its usual huskiness.

"Hey, Dad."

"How's it going down there? Did you make it okay?"

"Yeah," I answered looking out the window. "We made it three hours ago, but I forgot to call. Sorry."

"It's fine, Bells. Is it nice there?" Charlie, never good with small talk.

"More than fine. Edward's parents got us a really great room. Probably cost more than our house. And it's so warm here."

"That's really great. You going to the parks tomorrow?"

"Yeah. We got here kind of late, so we are going to wake up early tomorrow and go to Magic Kingdom first."

"Well, have fun," there was a short pause. "I better let you go so you can some sleep."

"Oh, alright. Talk to you later."

"Love you, Bells."

"Love you, too." I hung up the phone. I got up and went into the bedroom and grabbed my PJs and my bag of toiletries out of my suitcase. Edward was still talking on the phone, so I went into the bathroom and changed. I brushed my teeth to make sure I got every last bit of pizza out of my mouth. I heard the terrace door open and close. I then heard the sound of the awkward bathroom door/window things sliding open.

"Very sexy." I heard Edward say from behind me. I rolled my eyes at him in the mirror. I rinsed my mouth out before turning around.

"Ha ha." I said, walking out of the room. I was wearing a pair of cotton shorts and a ratty old t-shirt. "Tired Bella, is so very sexy."

"One of us thinks so." Edward said, smirking at me. I lightly shoved his chest, scoffing before going to sit on the bed. He went out into the living room to tell everyone we were going to bed.

"Please keep your sex noises down to a minimum please." I heard Emmett joke from the next room.

"You're an ass." Edward replied jokingly back before shutting the door. He stripped out of his pants and was left only in his boxers and a t-shirt.

"Very sexy." I said, quoting him from earlier. He chuckled before walking to the suitcase to grab his bathroom necessitates and closing the awkward doors. When he closed the actual door, I got off the bed to turn the light off.

I hurried back over to the bed, still not over the childish fear of something grabbing my feet in the dark. I yanked back the heavy blanket and the sheets. I crawled under them, and snuggled under the blankets. I rolled onto my side in the gigantic bed, finally letting the tiredness from 3 hours ago fully set in. I knew it was only a matter of minutes before I would be lost to the world.

A few seconds later, I heard the sound of the bathroom door open and the light click off. I heard his footsteps padding across the carpet. I felt the heaviness of the blankets lift off me for a fraction of a second before they rested on me again.

"Bella?" Edward's voice was laced with confusion. "Where are you?"

I giggled, a tired sound. I reached my hand out as far as it would go. "Reach for my hand."

A few seconds passed before his hand touched mine. "This bed is fucking huge."

"I know." I felt him pull me towards the middle of the bed and we met half way.

"There you are." He faintly whispered in my ear. He kissed the top of my head. I felt him wrap his arm around my waist and I curled into the shape of his chest. I could feel his heart against my back; it was beating a steady rhythm. His breathing was even with mine and it was very calming. I could feel myself slipping away.

"Good night, Bella." Was the last thing I heard before sleep took over.

* * *

**I would like to thank the random people of the internet for the car game ideas and questions! What would I do without Google? Thanks for reading! xoxo  
**


	4. Disney World Magic

**Time for some Disney adventures! **

* * *

**EPOV**

For being 8:40 in the morning, the sun was really beating down. We were hanging outside the gates to Magic Kingdom. There weren't very many people yet, which was understandable since the park wasn't even open yet.

"This is ridiculous," Rose complained. "Alice, I get that you are super excited. But, did we really have to be here 20 minutes early?" Rose adjusted the t-shirt she was wearing. She hated stretch cotton and looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Yes! I want to be the first person in the park." Alice's tone made room for no argument. She looked more comfortable than Rose in some weird tank top and short connected thing. One thing we all had in common though was that we were all really hot.

"My hair does not like the humidity. I do not do frizz." Rose said trying to tame her platinum blonde mane.

"There are a lot of things you don't do," Emmett muttered under his breath. Jasper and I let out muted chuckles. Rose narrowed her eyes at us. "I'm kidding, babe. You know I love you." She just huffed and went to stand by Bella and Alice.

Bella and Alice were sitting down on the ground right near the entrance. Bella was stretched out on the pavement, using her phone to take pictures of her and Alice. The sun was reflecting off her hair, making it have a reddish tint. Bella's hair was magic in that way, it was only red in the sunlight.

"So, you ready for tonight Jazz?" Emmett playfully shoved his shoulder.

"Absolutely." Jasper answered in his Southern drawl. He tapped the pocket on his cargo shorts. "I just hope she won't freak out."

"I don't think you have to worry about that," I said looking over at Alice. She was laughing at something that Bella showed her. "I think the only thing you have to worry about is when would be the right time to do it."

"I'd say do it right before the finale of the fireworks." Emmett suggested. He patted Jazz on the shoulder. "Just don't chicken out."

"I won't chicken out. You guys didn't tell the girls did you?" Jazz questioned.

"Bella knows nothing." I gave the scout's honor salute.

"I'm surprised Rose doesn't know because she lives with you." Emm added.

"That was the hardest part," Jazz rubbed his neck. "She was being very nosy the last few weeks when I was being secretive."

"Do you think Alice might suspect anything?" I whispered. The park entrance was getting more crowded because the park was opening in just a few short minutes.

"I hope not. This would ruin the surprise." He remarked.

Before any of was could say anything else, the giant clock at the entrance chimed away the time. "It's time, it's time!" Alice came bounding over and grabbed Jaspers hand. Bella snaked her arm through mine.

We went through the small security checkpoint before we made it officially into the park. We got our picture taken in front of the train station with the Mickey Mouse design in the flowerbed. After that, we made our way onto Main Street. We all kind of stopped right inside and took in the sight before us. We looked down the long street to the Walt Disney and Mickey statue to Cinderella's castle at the end. I felt like a little kid again.

"It's so. . . ADORABLE! OH MY GOD GUYS! LOOK AT THESE BUILDINGS!" Alice screamed running off to the right. The rest of us unfroze and followed after her. "GUYS! LOOK AT THAT!" She ran down the street about half way and stopped.

"It's like she's 5 all over again." Bella giggled. She took my hand and tugged me away to catch up with our own little pixie.

"We have to go in there!" Alice was pointing at the souvenir store with the t-shirts hanging in the display window. Of course she'd want to go shopping.

"We will, we will. But first," Emmett chuckled at Alice's overabundance of excitement. "We need to ride some of the rides before they get too crowded and the lines become hours long."

"Fine. Where to first?" Alice asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Well," Bella pulled the park map out of her multi-colored bag. "We are here. So, we can either go up to the left where Small World is at or up to the right where Space Mountain is."

"Space Mountain." Everyone said in unison. Bella stuffed the map back in her bag and we walked over to Tomorrowland.

The line for Space Mountain wasn't very long yet, so we only had to wait a few minutes. When it was our groups turn to get into the rocket ship shaped train. We filled the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rows in the train. Alice and Jazz in the front and Emm and Rose behind Bella and I.

"You scared?" I teased Bella.

"No! You scared, Cullen?" She played back. "You know, we're completely in the dark in there. Won't see any of the drops coming."

"Well, now I'm terrified."

"You can hide your face in my shoulder if you get too scared." She smiled coyly at me. And before I could respond back, the ride was in motion. It was the fastest 3 minutes of my life. One minute we were just cruising through a tunnel and then we dropped down and sped through the dark. There were occasional moments where it was lit up like we were speeding through hyper-space. And then we were back at the station.

"WOO! Let's go again! Let's go again!" Emm chanted behind us. "Excuse me sir, can I ride this again?"

"I'm afraid not. Unless you get back in line." The Imagineer smiled and went to help a little boy out of his seat.

"Can we get back in line guys?" Emm said rising out of his seat.

"No, we have to ride everything before the rides close!" Alice stated, heading for the exit.

"You guys go ahead, I'm going to get back in line." He started to head for the end of the line.

"Oh no you don't." Rose grabbed his elbow and stopped him. "You are sticking with us." The us sounded like it was meant as a me.

After Space Mountain, we headed over to the Speedway and raced each other on the go-karts. All of us ended up losing to a little girl and her mother. After that we ended up riding The Mad Hater Tea Cups (Jasper sat out because he got motion sickness from spinning fast. And with Emmett spinning the cup, it was understandable) and The Flying Dumbos. We went up and took the Little Mermaid adventure and made our way back to the castle. On the way, we rode Peter Pans Flight and It's A Small World.

"I know it's tradition to ride this ride, but it's so fucking annoying!" Rose moaned while we waited in line.

Emmett mockingly gasped. "You can't cuss in Disney World! You could go to Disney World prison! Do you know what happens in Disney World prison? They make you listen to this the whole time."

"Oh, shut up!" Rose said, crossing her arms. The happiest place on earth has no effect on her attitude.

After enduring It's A Small World, and leaving the ride humming the dumbass song, we went to find lunch. And lunch happened to be at Pinocchio Village House. While we munched on flatbread pizzas and meatball subs, we mapped out where we were going to go next.

"We're in Fantasyland now; we need to head over to Frontierland to ride Splash Mountain and The Great Thunder Railroad." Bella read from her map. "And then after we ride those, we can go on a character hunt. The question that remains is, is there ride anyone is dying to go on?"

"Pirates of the Caribbean and Carpets of Aladdin for me." I said, biting into the last bit of my pizza.

"Haunted Mansion!" Emm added.

"Anybody else?"

"Buzzlightyear and Monsters Inc." Jazz said through his chewing.

"Cool. We'll just go the opposite way we got here. And that leaves room to meet characters and shop before the fireworks tonight." Bella sighed contently before folding the map and putting it away. We finished up with our lunch at a quicker pace so we could get to Splash Mountain and get in line. I'm sure it was already an hour long, but we didn't have time to waste. After a quick restroom break, we headed out. We made it to Splash Mountain and joined the end of the extremely long line.

"It's a good thing we're going on this, I'm sweating like a pig." Rose fanned herself with her hand.

"Too bad your dad didn't hook us up with Fast Passes for the parks." Bella commented, looking at where the line disappears into the fake cave.

"I know. But, waiting isn't so bad." I ran my hand through my hair. This was going to take forever.

What seemed like hours later, we had finally moved to inside the cave and were on a flight of stairs. It was cooler in here, but not by much. If you looked out the little window in the cave wall, you could see the loading platform. We had to be getting closer. Emmett was annoying everyone around him, including Rose. Jasper was leaning up against the railing on the opposite wall, fiddling with his fingers. Alice was sitting by his feet, flipping through her phone.

"How long have we been standing here?" Bella asked from her position leaning on the wall.

"About 40 minutes. I don't know why we haven't moved yet." I sighed out of boredom. Looking out the window you could see, people leaving on the logs and getting off them. But why our line wasn't moving was a mystery. People were starting to get restless. You could hear little kids whining to their parents and the parents getting annoyed answering the same question over and over.

"Say hi guys!" Alice said, holding up her phone.

"What are you doing, pix?" I asked.

"Making a video. Documenting our time in line at Splash Moutain."

"We have been stuck here for 40 minutes. I'm about ready to jump out this window and cut everyone in line!" Bella said to Alice's iPhone. The case on the outside was shaped like a bunny.

"Violence is not the answer," I joked.

"You know what I meant!" Bella playfully shoved my shoulder.

"Rose, say something." Alice turned her phone on Rose.

"Bite me." Rose responded. "This is ridiculous. Unless someone died up there, I don't see why we have to wait this long."

"Stop being so grouchy, sis. You're at the happiest place on earth! Cheer up." Jazz said.

"I'll be happier once we start moving." Rose tossed her hair over her shoulder.

"Ookkaaayyy. Em," He turned around. "Say something to the bunny!"

"What they don't tell you about Splash Mountain is that waiting is the ride!" Emm grinned a toothy smile. "But if this party doesn't get moving soon, I'm going to be making my own Splash Mountain."

"Nasty Emm!" Alice said, putting her phone away. Emm just shrugged his shoulders.

A few more minutes passed by and around of cheers erupted ahead of us and the line started moving at a fast pace.

"FINALLY! I KNEW THERE WAS A GOD!" Emmett shouted. Those that were sitting stood and raced to catch up with the fast moving line. Someone had passed out from heat exhaustion; they had to wait for the paramedics to come check the person out.

We had finally, after almost 2 hours of waiting, made it to the front of the line. Our group of six ended up getting a log all to ourselves because there was no couple around to take the remaining two seats. The ride started out with a big drop and then coasted through a peaceful tunnel. There were animated characters that helped tell a story along the way. And then we hit another drop inside the mountain. We all thought that was the end.

"I remember this ride being more fun." Emm yelled from the very back.

"Same here." I yelled back to him from the front.

And just when we thought it was over, the water started to get faster. And the little bunny character started yelling about not wanting to get thrown into a briar patch. And then, we saw a bright opening. And down we went into the briar patch. We all screamed at the top of our lungs! It looked like we were actually going to hit the fake thorns. We came down with a giant splashed and got soaked!

"I can't wait to see that picture!" Jazz hollered. We all yelled a triumphant sound. The people watching the ride were staring at us in amusement.

When we made it back to the loading bay, we all looked like drowned rats. All of us made our way over to the photo booth and waited for our picture to come up. And it was a comical site. Bella was sitting in the front of the log and she had a look of pure terror on her face. I looked like The Joker with the grin on my face. Alice had her fist thrust in the air and was in the middle of a scream. Jasper had both his arms thrown in the air. Rose had her face covered. And Emmett had his arms crossed with a serious expression on his face. We each bought a copy of the photo.

We then made our way to the Big Thunder Railroad and it would help us dry off a bit. We all felt 10x cooler than before. After this ride, we snaked our way to meet the Toy Story characters behind Splash Mountain. We got our picture taken with them before heading for the Aladdin carpets. After finishing up the rest of the rides and meeting as many of the characters as we could (we missed getting to meet Ariel by a measly minute) we walked back to the souvenir store Alice saw earlier to buy a few things. The girls broke off to go look at hats while us guys went to the t-shirt section.

"You ready for tonight, Jazz?" I asked nonchalantly, browsing through different Mickey tees. "Just 4 more hours."

"As ready as I'll ever be." He sounded like he was second guessing. I wasn't the only one that picked up on it.

"Don't be a pussy, man. You love her right?" Emm said, admiring a grey muscle tee with the words Disney World across the chest.

"Yeah."

"And she loves you, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then go for it. You couldn't do it in a better place," Emmett stated.

"Or have a better opportunity." I added.

"Exactly. So, go for it. The worst she could do is say no."

"Gee, thanks Emm. That makes me feel better." Jazz scoffed.

"But she won't." Emm walked around the rack of tees, and put his hand on Jazz's shoulder. "She's going to say yes. And when she does, of course I'll be your best man. Sorry Edward."

"He hasn't even asked you yet," I laughed.

"What's so funny?" Bella's voice came out of nowhere. Rose and Alice were trailing behind her items in their hands.

"Nothing." We said together. She looked at us skeptically. I looked at Emm and Jazz before we broke off and looked at shirts again.

All of us bought one shirt, plus girls added a pair of Minnie Mouse ears. We ended up heading back to the resort to hang out, eat and nap for a few hours.

We headed back to the park 2 and a half hours later to get as close to the castle as possible. We wanted to be able to see Tinkerbell take off from the castle at a good view. We ended up right next to the giant statue of Walt and Mickey. There was about an hour or so til the firework show started. Jasper was getting anxious. The area around us was getting more and more packed by the minute. We eventually stood up so we could make room for other people. Before we knew it, Jiminy Cricket's voice welcomed us to the Wishes Come True firework display. I wrapped my arms around Bella's waist and she leaned her back into me.

A spot light came on above the castle, and it was illuminating Tinkerbell on top of the castle. She made her decent down towards Tomorrowland. And the fireworks shot off. The basis of the show was good versus evil. Being a kids show, obviously the good was going to win. You could tell it was getting towards the finale because the music was building up. And that's when it happened.

"Alice?" Jasper tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around, he got down on one knee.

"Oh my god. . ." Rose mumbled in shock.

"Jazz." Alice squeaked out.

"Alice Mary Brandon, I knew that day we met in the 7th grade that you were the sweetest and most down to earth girl I'd ever met. And I knew from that moment on that I had to make you my mine. And now that you are mine, I want to make it forever. Alice," Jasper pulled the ring box out of his pocket and opened it to reveal the prize inside. "Will you marry me?"

Alice had tears streaming down her face. She nodded her head up down because it didn't look like she was going to form the words to say yes. Jasper took the ring out of the box and slid it onto her waiting finger. The crowd around us must have been paying attention because a round of applause erupted.

"I got it!" Emm said. He recorded the whole thing on his phone. "I'll send it to you guys later. Congrats man!"

"Congrats Alice!" Bella broke away from me to hug her best friend. "I'm so happy for you!"

"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" Rose said, hugging her brother.

"I knew you'd tell Bella and then Alice would somehow find out." Jasper said. I could his cheeks flush from the light of the fireworks. The song "A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes" was playing in the background to the finale of the spectacle.

Alice ran over and leaped into Jaspers arms. "I love you." She planted a kiss on his waiting lips. We all turned away and paid attention to the fireworks. Or what was left of the fireworks.

Once the show was over, everyone was trying to leave all at once because the park was closing down. All of us hung back and waited for the majority of the crowd to clear out. Alice and Jasper were getting random congratulations from people. Alice was beaming and talking to her mom on the phone.

"I always knew they'd be the first of us." Bella commented, looking at the river flowing under the bridge we were on.

"I didn't know it'd be this soon. I mean, she's 17 and he's 18. But it's understandable," Rose commented. "With him heading off to the army and all."

"Yeah, who knows when he'll get back. Maybe they'll elope somewhere." Emmett said.

"Not over our mom's dead body! If she has it her way, the wedding will be a big spectacular event."

"Alice will love it either way," Bella yawned. "We should get going before we get kicked out."

"Want a lift?" I offered. Bella hoped up on my back, she kissed my cheek before resting her chin on my shoulder.

"Onward, noble stead!" She said.

We gathered up Jasper and Alice and went towards the exit of Magic Kingdom.

~oOo~

The week went by really fast. After Magic Kingdom, we headed over to Epcot. We didn't end up doing a whole lot there. The favorite attractions of the day were Soarin, Mission: Space and Test Track. We ended up riding Test Track 3 times because the speed was amazing! We then ended walking around the World Village the rest of the day. And we ate in Canada and Germany. We ended up staying for the little light show at dusk, but bailed afterward.

The next day was more exciting because we went to Animal Kingdom. The first thing we rode there was Expedition Everest. We beat the crowds for once and were some of the first people to get on the ride. I'm not going to lie, when the Yetti popped out I was a little scared. We also rode the Kilimanjaro Safari. After that we went to It's Tough to Be a Bug! and the girls hated it. They didn't like that fake grasshoppers were flying around in the dark and the stinger on the bees hurt. So, we took them on the Kali River Rapids. They perked right up. We only spent a little over half the day there. We ended up going back to Magic Kingdom to ride some of those rides again.

On the fourth day we visited the Hollywood Studios. Our favorite rides were the Rockin' Roller coaster (rode it twice) and the Tower of Terror (rode is 4 times!). We ended up going on everything in this park. We waited for three hours in the Toy Story Midway Mania line. But it was worth it. I ended up kicking Emmett's ass. We had lunch at Pizza Planet and dinner at a cool indoor Sci-Fi diner place. It was set up like an old timey drive-in theater. The tables were inside multi-colored vehicles. After dinner we went on Star Tours before heading over to wait in line for Fantasmic.

The last two days of the trip we spent down at Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. The girls wanted to go to the water parks, so we saved those for the end.

"Does this trip really have to end?" Bella asked, as she floated next to me in the conjoined inner tube. Everyone else had run off to go down the slides. We were in the lazy river at Blizzard Beach.

"I wish it didn't have to either. I could just cruise down this river forever." I titled my head back into the sun. The sun was making the water evaporate off my skin. I was going to have to go take a dip soon.

"It's been so nice being away from it all," She stretched her arms above her head and laid them down on her stomach. She was in a very sexy red bikini. Her reddish brown hair was down and drying in the sun. She looked beautiful just lying here next to me. "Sadly, we all turn into pumpkins tomorrow morning."

"The rest of summer vacation will fly by now." I reached over and grabbed Bella's hand and brought it between us. We were floating past the kiddie park for the second time.

"I wish it wouldn't. I don't want to think about what happens after. Where everyone will be." Her voice trailed off at the end.

"Hey," I turned my face to look into her eyes. "That stuff is months away. We don't have to think about any of that now. Just live in the moment, with me. I'm not going anywhere." A small smile formed on her perfect lips.

"You know I love you, right?"

"And you know I love you too, right?" I brought her hand up to my lips. We floated in silence for a while.

"Want to go down Summit Plummit again?" Bella asked

"Let's go." We got out of our inner tube and raced out of the river.

~oOo~

It was 5 o'clock in the morning on day 7. We were all getting ready to leave on the long drive back home. None of us seemed to want to leave though. Emmett, Jasper and I took the suitcases down to the SUV while the girls straightened up the room looking for anything that might get left behind. Once everything was packed and the room was double checked we headed out.

"Bye bye Disney World." Alice said, as she waved out the window of the car. We could see the sun rising in the distance.

"You were magical and fun!" Bella said from the seat next to me.

"Time to go back to Forks, where magic and fun don't exist." Emmett declared.

"You have to make your own magic in that damn town." Rose grumbled. Disney World didn't change her at all. Still grumpy at 6 in the morning.

"Favorite part of Disney World. Go!" Emmett shouted.

"Fantasmic." Bella stated.

"The Test Track." Jasper said.

"Blizzard Beach." Rose added.

"When Jasper proposed to me." Alice giggled.

"The fact that it didn't rain once." I said. I got a high five from Jasper.

"Damn straight! I actually got a tan." Emmett said from the driver's seat.

"We all got tans. Now we're going to look like we don't belong." Bella laughed.

"We were as pale as vampires. Now were tan like werewolf men." Alice said stifling a yawn.

The conversations began to die out after that, everyone was getting settled in for the next 5 hours before we had to switch drivers. I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes. I was going to miss the warmth of Florida. But something about me couldn't wait to get to the cold state of Washington.

* * *

**I have many things planned out for the next two chapters! A new character and an interesting plot line! It's the last summer, anything could happen ;-) Thanks for reading xoxo**


	5. New Faces

**I've brought in two new characters. One seems to bring a good element. The other, well just wait and see!**

* * *

**BPOV**

The trip back from Florida seemed a lot longer than the trip down. Vacationing with your best friends sounds like a fun time, but after 7 days you kind of get sick of each other. So, to minimize the time we spent in the car we tried to drive as far as we could before a break was absolutely necessary. We ended up making the 2 day drive into a day and a half drive by taking the shortest route. Once we made it back to Forks, the atmosphere in the car seemed to relax. We all knew that it meant we'd all be out of each other's space soon enough. Don't get me wrong, we all love each other dearly, but a few days of personal space were really needed.

When Emmett pulled up to his house at around seven in the evening, not many words were exchanged. We all helped unload his SUV, we said our good byes and hoped in our own cars and drove home. It felt so good to be back in a familiar place. I had forgotten how green and moist it was here. The place looked like it just hit by a summer storm. There were twigs scattered on the road and the pavement was newly wet. It felt like home, but the warmth and cloudless skies of Florida would be missed dearly.

When Edward dropped me off at my house, I noticed an unfamiliar vehicle parked behind my truck. It was a faded green Honda.

"Do you know who drives that?" Edward asked, handing me my duffel from the trunk.

"No idea," I slung the strap over my shoulder. "Better go find out."

"See you later." Edward quickly kissed me goodbye and got back in his Volvo. I walked up the path to the front door. Beyond the old brown door, I could hear the sound of a woman laughing. A woman? In this house? I opened the unlocked door and stepped inside. "Dad?" I shut the door.

"In the kitchen, Bells." I heard Charlie call out. He sounded overly cheery. I slid off my Converse before marching off to the kitchen. And sitting there, in the kitchen with a plate full of food, was a dark haired woman. A look of confusion crossed my face.

"Hey dad." I dropped my bag on the floor and strode over to Charlie. What was this woman doing in my kitchen? With my dad? Eating REAL food?

"Hey Bella! It's good to see you," He got up and wrapped me in a hug. This was still weird. "How was the drive back?"

"It was good," I said pulling away, noticing the woman was staring at me with a smile. "I'm sorry. But, who is this?"

"Oh," He said getting flustered. Charlie didn't get flustered. "Bella, I'd like you to meet Sue Clearwater. Sue, this is my daughter Isabella."

"It's so nice to finally meet you." The woman, Sue, said. She stuck out her hand.

"Nice to meet you too." I said shaking her outstretched hand. I was still trying to go over what was happening in my head. Charlie had a woman over and they were eating food that looked edible. When did this happen? I was only gone seven days!

"Charlie has told me so much about you." Sue added, picking up her fork and cutting off a piece of lasagna.

"Oh he has?" I said, raising a brow at my father. He blushed and sat back down. "I hope it was all good. How did you two meet?" I grabbed the chair next to Charlie and sat down, intrigued.

"You tell her, Charlie." Sue said with a smirk.

"Well," Charlie took a swing of his Vitamin R before he began. "I was on duty at the police station, and I got a call about some kid who was stuck on the cliffs out near the La Push border. So, I drove out there. And there was Sue. Her son happened to be the one stuck up there. So, I helped calm her down while the firefighters worked to get her son, his name is Seth, off the cliff ledge. And we kind of bonded."

"What did you bond over, exactly?"

"Oh, the fact that we were both single parents. Only she was raising two kids, a 12 year old and a 19 year old."

"And he tried to flirt with me a little." Sue added pointing her fork at him. Charlie blushed for the second time tonight.

"Flirting?" Disbelief coloring my tone. "Wow dad. I didn't know you had it in you."

"Well it worked. I gave her my phone number. This is the third night we've had dinner together." Charlie said, scraping up the last bit of sauce on his plate. "She is a fantastic cook. Almost as good as you, Bells."

I chuckled. "Well I wouldn't believe you made this, sorry dad. It looks amazing. Can I have a plate?"

"Absolutely," Sue said getting up. She'd obviously been here enough to know where the plates were. "Your dad told me you were off at Disney World. How was that?"

"Awesome! It was just as how I remembered it from 11 years ago. I didn't want to leave. But, I'm so glad to be back," Sue set a plate in front of me and served me up a nice square of lasagna. "I love my friends, but being with them for seven days can get tiring. Oh and two of my friends got engaged there."

"Who?" Charlie's voice spiked.

"Alice and Jasper," I shoved piece of the pasta cake into my mouth. Oh my god, this was amazing. Better than mine I have to admit. I swallowed before I continued. "He proposed at Magic Kingdom during the fireworks display at night. It was romantic. We got it on video."

"But they are fresh out of high school. What about their parents?" Charlie's face was laced with concern.

"I guess they were okay with it. I mean, Jasper is leaving for military camp the week before Alice goes back to school. I guess there was no better time than the present." I shoveled more of the lasagna into my mouth, cleaning my plate.

"Huh," Charlie said. He looked like he was about to say something, then thought better of it.

"If you think Edward and I are going to follow suit, dad, don't worry. We aren't ready for that kind of commitment yet." I saw him let out an easy breath. I was good at reading his mind. "Thanks for the food, Ms. Clearwater."

"Oh please, call me Sue. And you're welcome," She smiled. "I brought dessert if you want any."

"Oh, I think I'm going to go upstairs and get ready for bed. I'm tired. Thanks anyway." My chair scraped across the wooden floor as I got up. I took my plate to the sink before walking back over to hug Charlie. "See you in the morning, dad. It was nice meeting you, Sue."

As Charlie said, "Good night, Bella." Sue said, "Nice meeting you, too." I grabbed my duffel and walked to the stairs. As I climbed them I heard Charlie ask about dessert. I just shook my head and walked to my room.

My room was as exactly as I left it. There were clothes scattered on the floor and my bed was still unmade. I tossed my bag onto the ground; it slid and got stopped by my closet door. I flopped down backwards onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling. Charlie has a girlfriend. He managed to get a girlfriend in the seven days that I was gone, I thought. I smiled at the thought of someone else making my dad happy. It hasn't been like this in a long time. It was good for him. I was happy for him.

I heard the familiar ding of my phone from across the room. I groaned as I got up to get it. It was a text from Edward.

Edward: So who does the mysterious car belong to?

Me: A woman.

Edward: A woman?!

Me: IKR!

Edward: Way to go Charlie!

Me: lol I'll fill you in tomorrow. I'm going to shower and sleep.

Edward: Okay. Sweet dreams. Love you!

Me: Love you too!

I plugged my almost dead phone into the outlet before gathering my showering supplies and crossing the hall to the bathroom. On the way, I heard Charlie and Sue in the living room.

"She seems like a really sweet girl." They must be talking about me. Those gossipers! I crept toward the stairs and eavesdropped.

"Yeah. Bella is a good kid. I hope she can handle herself in New York." Charlie said. I could see the tops of their heads by the stairs.

"She seems like she'd fair well. Don't sweat it. You've got all summer." Sue's tan hand reached up and swept at his hair.

"It'll go by like that." Charlie snapped his fingers.

"Just live in the moment," Sue added. It looked like they hugged. "I gotta get going; can't leave Seth and Leah together without a referee too long."

"I'll walk you to your car." Charlie led her out the front door. I backed away from the banister and went to take my shower.

~oOo~

The past two weeks have pretty much been the same as they were before, with the addition of Sue stopping by every once and a while. I still cook and clean and do normal teenager things, but there was a different vibe in the house and around me. Everything seemed to be happier. Charlie seemed a lot happier with Sue in his life. And the outside happy vibe was coming from Alice. She called four days after we got back with wedding plans already.

"I want you to be my Maid of Honor Bella!" Alice chirped into the phone.

"What about Rose?" I asked, trying to keep the surprise out of my tone.

"She's going to be my other Maid of Honor. I have two best friends so they both get to be Maids of Honor. A few of my cousins are going to be the other bridesmaids plus some of Jaspers. So that makes sixteen bridesmaids."

"Sixteen Alice? Are you sure that's not too much?" I questioned.

"No! It's just enough. I want to keep the anticipation up for my walk down the aisle." Alice added and then abruptly hung up. I pulled the phone away from my face in confusion. Alright then.

Besides obscure calls from Alice about wedding plans, I've had planning to do of my own. I was prepping for my NYU orientation that was in a few weeks. I had all this paperwork to fill out and it was very boring. I still didn't have a roommate or a dorm assignment. I was starting to get stressed out but I knew I couldn't do anything about it. College was a stressful experience and I wasn't even in school yet.

Adding to the college stress, Charlie wanted to spend quality time together. Whenever he wasn't working he wanted to hang out and do things with me. We've gone fishing together and I've taken him to the movies. We've even watched a few pre-season games together. I know what he was trying to do; he wanted to get as much time with me in as possible. And it was great and all, but no one likes to be smothered by a parent. One night at dinner I had to tell him that he needed to ease up.

I don't know if it was to suck up some of my free time so Charlie wouldn't be all clingy or because I needed money for college, but I went out and got a job. I got a job at one of the chain bookstores in Seattle. I worked at the customer service counter in the center of the store. I helped people find books and stocked the shelves with the latest books. I was actually the first of my friends to get an actual job. So naturally, they all came by to gawk at me and just be general pain in the asses. Or maybe that was just Emmett.

"Excuse me?" Emmett had said the first day he came in. "Do you know where I can find the erotica section?"

"Excuse me?" He said the second time he came in. "Do you know where I can find the self-help books? I'm having trouble pooping."

Yeah, Emmett was a pain in the ass.

It was my sixth day on the job when he came in. I was on my break and sitting in the little café area reading the book I have to read for my college English class.

"I'm sorry to bother you," said a deep, unfamiliar voice. "But do you mind if I sit here. Everywhere else is full."

I looked up from the book and was met with these dark, almost black eyes. He had defined muscles under his tan skin. His cropped short black hair glistened from the rain outside.

"No, go ahead." I gestured to the seat. I took my feet down off of it and sat up. I didn't realize there were this many people in here. I looked out the window and saw that the rain was coming down, harder than normal.

"Thank you." The stranger said pulling out the green metal chair and popped a squat. I nodded and went back to my story.

"Ernest Hemingway? Interesting choice for light reading." He commented looking at my book.

"I wish it was light reading," I didn't look up from the page I was on. "It's for my college class."

"What college exactly?"

"Who wants to know?" I looked up from my page meeting his gaze. He had very boyish features, but he didn't sound like a teenager.

"I'm Jacob. Jacob Black." He said very bond like. "And you're Isabella."

"How'd you-" I stopped and remembered I had a nametag on. Duh. "Nevermind. And it's just Bella."

"Just Bella. Good to know." Jacob said. "How old are you, Bella?"

"You're not some creepy predator praying on innocent girls in bookstores are you?" I asked.

"Afraid not. That is not in my job description." A smile creeped up on his lips.

"I'm eighteen." I said. "How old are you?"

"I'm twenty-one." I knew it! No teenager has that deep of a voice.

"So, if you aren't a predator then what are you?"

"I'm a junior at Washington University, studying veterinary science. I want to be a vet." He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms.

"I thought people studied that to become astronauts. I've been lied to," I added sarcastically. Jacob laughed.

"You're funny. And you still didn't answer my question."

"New York University."

"Ooo. Prestigious. If you go to school there, why are you here on the far opposite coast?"

"I don't go there, yet. I'm going to be a freshman. And I live here." I closed my book because obviously I wasn't going to read with him being all Nancy Drew. Who did this to a total stranger? Maybe if I gave him what he wanted, he'd leave.

"Ahh. Now it makes sense," He stared at me with a look of peaking interest. It was kind of uncomfortable. And just plain weird. "So, Bella. Are you single?"

And there it was. Too bad for him! Maybe now he'll move on to someone else and be creepy with her. "No, unfortunately for you, I have a boyfriend."

His look didn't waver. If anything, I saw something spark in his dark eyes. "That's always how it is. I can never catch a break."

"Sorry," I looked down at my watch and saw that I had four minutes to get back to work. "I hate to leave you hanging, but I gotta get back to work." I'd say it was nice meeting you, but that'd be lying.

"Of course. I'll see you around, maybe?" He followed me with his eyes as I got up.

"Maybe." I turned on my heel and stalked out of the café without looking back. I gave a little shudder as I walked to my station.

~oOo~

"I mean, it was like a scene straight out of a movie. Creepy stranger walks up to girl, has some weird obsession with her and then kills her because it doesn't work out."

I had my phone shoved between my ear and shoulder. I was retelling what happened early this afternoon to Rose and Alice through a three way call. I was also trying to pick out something to wear on my date with Edward in half an hour.

"I don't think you have to worry about the killing part," Rose said.

"Just don't wonder around Seattle by yourself at night." Alice chimed in.

"Why would I do that?" I pulled a ruffled blue top off the hanger and threw it on the bed.

"I don't know," Alice said. "Just be careful with this guy. Whether he said it or not, he sounds like a predator."

"Maybe he won't show up. Like you said, it was pouring outside and there were lots of people inside." Rose added.

"True. One can only hope." I plopped down on my bed.

"So, what are you and Edward doing tonight?" Alice said changing the subject.

"We're going to see that new horror movie. And then get dessert afterwards."

"Sounds like fun. We'll let you get ready. Talk to you later, Bella!" Alice said.

"Later Bella."

"Bye guys." I hung up the phone and then got up to get changed.

~oOo~

"That was interesting." Edward said as we walked out of the theater in Port Angeles. It was almost completely dark outside.

"By interesting, I hope you mean disturbing." I half-laughed. We were walking hand and hand to the ice cream parlor down the street. "If you were faced with that decision, would you do it?"

I looked up at him. "I don't have any personal vendettas against anyone, so I'd probably just hide out in my house. What about you?" He looked down at me with his deep green eyes.

"Oh, I'd so go out and start on my hit list." I joked.

"You, Isabella Swan, have a hit list?" Edward looked at me with a raised brow. He looked so sexy like that.

"Of course I do. You never know when you're gonna need it." We had stopped at a crosswalk.

"Who is on this hit list?" He hit the button to make the lights change.

"No one in particular. Just a few people." I let that hang there as we crossed the street and walked into the small store. It was a cute little ice cream place with about six tables inside and four outside. There were pink and blue accents all around the room. We got in line behind an old lady and two little kids.

"What do you want?" Edward asked looking at the array of ice cream flavors in front of us.

"Mint chocolate chip cone dipped in chocolate." I wrapped my arm around his waist to collect his body heat. Even though it was warm outside, it was freezing in here. He wrapped his arm around me and chaffed his hand against my goose bump ridden arm.

"How can I help you guys?" One of the workers dressed in a blue polo asked us.

"She'll have a mint chocolate chip cone dipped in chocoloate," Edward paused contemplating his order. "I'll have a cookie dough cone with caramel."

The nice lady nodded and got to work on our order. When we got it paid for we took our cones outside and sat at one of the tables. The moon was finally up in the sky and it was shining really bright. There weren't many cars. The night was very peaceful.

"You excited for next week?" Edward asked after a while.

"Yeah, I guess." I took a bite out of the hardened chocolate coating.

"Oh come on," He said. "You're going to be in New York City. There's got to be more enthusiasm than that."

"I'm excited because I'll be in NYC. Not excited because it means one step closer to college. I mean, I am excited for college, "I took a deep breath. "I'm afraid."

"Bella," He looked at me, like really looked at me. You know, one of those I'm going to be serious looks. "What are you afraid of?"

I looked down at my half eaten melting cone. The ice cream was dripping onto my hand and down onto the table. I whispered, "Everything."

"Hey," Edward reached his hand across the table and lifted my chin up. "There is nothing to be afraid of."

"How do you know?" I reached for one of the paper napkins to wipe my sticky hand off.

"Because everything will work out just fine. I promise you." He said taking the last bite of his cone and putting it in his mouth.

"That's a hefty promise to keep, Cullen." I said, smiling a little. I decided the rest of my cone was a lost cause so I got up to pitch it.

"When have I ever broken my promises?" He smirked that perfect crocked smile. He tossed his napkin in the trashcan and we headed back to his Volvo.

It was a quiet ride back into Forks. The radio was turned down low and our hands were intertwined over the center console. I had my head turned and was looking at the passing trees out the window. My mind began to wonder to uncharted territory I'd visited since before vacation.

If Edward wasn't considering Julliard as a school, then what was going to happen to us? If he intended to go to one of these schools in Washington, then it'd mean we'd be one of those couples. We'd have to make the long distance thing work. And everyone knows that it never works. Everyone says that you aren't meant to keep your high school relationship outside of high school. But, I don't see myself with anyone but Edward. And I didn't want to lose him over something like distance.

"Bella, everything okay?" Edward asked. I didn't realize that we'd stopped in front of my house. Instead of saying that I was fine, something else decided to make its way out.

"Why haven't you told me about Julliard?" I blurted out. I felt the hand holding mine tense up. I slowly looked over at him. Oh shit.

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**I thought about many different Jacob's for this story and this is the one I'm rolling with. Cliffhanger fun! Thanks for reading xoxo  
**


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